The Winter of Death
by CrystleIceFire
Summary: There's a new camper, the Daughter of Shiva, goddess of Winter, what happens when Nico, son of Hades, falls for this proper girl? Even if they are total opposties...And when a goddess is in danger, Annabeth,Percy, Cortana, and Nico have to save her.
1. Shivar meets Hades

Chapter 1- Meeting Cortana

Nico's P.O.V.

I was walking around the border of camp, like I usually did on nights I couldn't this night was different, I just had to find out how. As I walked I soon saw a pale light, very faint. As I stepped closer I realized I was looking at the faint figure of a girl, just about my age. (15) She was leaing against a tree and clutching her side in pain, her pale blue eyes screamed, fear and help, like she was having a nightmare. Her entire body was brusied and covered in cuts and scars, her usually almost white blonde, shoulder length, straight hair, was colored by her own blood. Her clothes which were all torn up, she was wearing light blue jeans and a white t-shirt. She was very pale, but I figured it was because the loss of blood. And her skin glowed in tha faint moonlight.

She was in horrible condition, in an hour tops she would be dead. I knew I had to do something, Shadow traveling would waste to much of her energy, and she would be dead upon arrival. But if I carried her.......we were at least a mile on foot to the Big House, and thats too risky. I sighed, but called Ms.O'Leary, the camps hellhound. She bounded out of the woods, the girl, started backing the hellhound carefully. I shook my head at her. She glared and shook her head violently. I sighed, but grabbed her, she looked like, if she wasn't so weak, she punch me so hard I'd be in the camp's hospital for a week.

I sighed and gently set her on Ms. O'Leary who sniffed her curiously. I hopped on and kept her steady, and Mrs. O'Leary bounded on towards the Big House.

Moments later, the girl looked sickly from the ride, and we were at the Big House. I hopped down and the girl practically fell into me, she looked like she would puke.

I quickly led her to Chiron, who stood up from his wheelchair. Interrupting his card game, he revealed his half-horse form, the girl looked un-suprised, if nothing else, I was positive she wanted to pet him.

Chiron hosited her into his horse back, along with me. While Mr.D mumbled something like, "Great, another brat here at this miserable camp."

Moments later, the nurse rushed in, and started treating the girls wounds, she had many scars, and a huge deep gash right on her side. After a bit, she fell asleep.

Ever since the war three years ago things have been good, Annabeth has her dream, she is working on rebuilding Olympus and she's making a exact copy of the cabins, because we're so overcrowded now that the Satyrs has been bringing newly claimed kids, thanks to Percy.

I even get a cabin. And Grover, the Satyr is happy, fufilling his dream, cleaning up pollution and planting more greenry. And Percy is living happily at camp, being the new expert swordsman and everything, he even had Annabeth as his girlfriend.

And basically everything was good. I sighed as I slowly drifted off to sleep....

Annabeth's P.O.V.

It was early in the morning but Chiron informed me that a new camper. And I was supposed to watch her and guide her around camp, which I did with everyone. I still had a few cabin's to finish, but with my whole cabin helping, they would be done at the end of the day.

The nurse escorted me to the room the girl was staying in. I slowly opened the door, The girl was awake, but not up, she was staring at Nico, who was still sleeping, with confusion in her eyes. She heard me open the door and looked my way. She looked well rested, but really bored.

"Hello." I said softly. She said nothing so I entered and stood beside her.

She cleared her throat. "Hello." She had a small british accent, but her voice was nice.

"Hey, mind telling me your name? I'm Annabeth, the camp's architect." I stated proudly.

She gave me a puzzled look, like she was surprised at my acomplishment. "Yes, my name is Cortana, nice to meet you Annabeth." She said with a soft smile. I returned it.

She tried sitting up but groaned quietly. "Stupid injuries, I'm all stiff, and dying to get out of here." She mumbled. I smirked.

"Don't strain yourself, I know it really sucks when your in here with nothing to do." I said. She sighed.

"So can you tell me about yourself?" I asked. She nodded.

"Well, I love music and sports, but my favorite is Ice skating. I don't care for warm weather, but I love cold weather. I ran away from home when I was fourteen, I lived in London at the time, so it took me awhile to get here." She said.

"Parents?" I asked. She frowned and looked down, I knew I had reached a touchy subject.

"Well.....I don't know my mom at all and my father.......Well, he uhh.....passed when I was seven and so I live in foster care." She said barely over a whisper.

"Yeah I know how you feel, I never knew my mom ethier and I ran away from my father at age seven, and I arrived here." I told her, she seemed to cheer up at that.

"Anything else?" I pressed, it bothered me not knowing all about this girl.

She sighed. "No." She anwsered.

"Sorry I'm being pushy, I'm a child of Athena, so I hate not knowing things." I said.

"You mean like that Greek Goddess?" She asked. "Yep." I answered. "Alright I told you about me, so now I need to learn about you." She countered. I smirked.

"Alright you got me, Well, I love architechture and monuments, I love reading and learning, and building stuff." I told her.

"Nico was mumbling something about a boy named Percy, and then you came up, do you know him?" She asked. I smiled imagining him.

"Yes, he's my boyfriend." I anwsered. She smiled. "I see." She said. Soon the nurse came in to do a checkup on her.

"Alright deary, you may leave now, but please take it easy." She decided after she was done.

She sighed in relief with a silent "Yes!". I grinned and helped her up as she eagerly hopped down from the bed, her clothes were all torn up.

"Come on, we're getting you some new clothes." I said, gragging her towards the gift shop. Once there she quickly changed into some comfortable light blue jeans, white sneakers, and an orange camp half-blood shirt, she brushed her newly cleaned and blood free hair.

"Better?" I asked. She nodded. "Better." She agreed.

"Alright, want me to give you the tour?" I asked, she nodded.

We explored the climbing wall, the volleybal courts, the mess hall, the cabins, the beach, the river, the Big House, and pretty much everything. She was amazed by my work I'd done on the place.

"So who's your godly parent?" I asked her.

"Ummmm, Shiva." She anwsered. (Goddess of Winter)

I racked my brain, I'd just finished that cabin earlier today. It was beside Hades and the Aphrodite cabin.

"Ahh yes, you're lucky, I just finished that one today." I said. I led her two it, it was a white cabin, it had icicles hanging from the roof and frost covered everything, of course they'd last all year long, even a few frost covered flowers in the flower pots. Inside was light wood flooring, there was two beds, one on each side, all had white sheets all with snowflake patterns, and the place was always cold, like feezing, but Cortana paid it no mind, there was even small piles of snow it the corners, on the back wall was a water fountain statue, it was stone polar bears on a glacier, one was squirting water from its mouth, making a rainbow, and their was a few golden dachmas in the pool of shallow water, there were also few books on mythology and ancient greek on the shelf.

She looked around the room appreciatively, and smiled at me.

"I love it!" She said. I could tell she was tired, so I said my goodbyes and she plopped herself on the bed, drifting off to sleep.


	2. I am just going to inform you

I'm am just going to say.

How is my OC a Mary-Sue, and as the story goes on, I will reveal more about her past, which wasn't exactly every childs picture of a perfect life, I mean abusive parents, a foster kid, and She got all those brusies and scars from her parents not from being attacked by monsters as I would have revealed in the second chapter. And my OC is not perfect not even close, so I don't get why you all think shes a mary-sue.

And I forgot to change my summery, it isn't going to be about how my OC and another camper fight for Nico, I ment to put,

"And what if Annabeth,Percy,Nico and a certain daughter of Shiva have to fit in in High school to recuit new Demi-gods?"

So if you thought the plot was messed up, it was, and I am therefore changing it.

And I will delete this story if you really think i can't make it better

But if you would like me too PLEASE say,

And even if you hate this story I still want your opinon.

REVIEW!


	3. Hades gets the cold shoulder

Chapter 2- Hades gets the cold Shoulder

Nico's P.O.V.

I woke up, but I was still in the same hosptial room as the day before, and the girl was gone. I stood up uneasily, I was still tired.

"Finally awake deary?" The nurse chuckled. " You'd better get moving, Chiron wishes to speak with you, oh and bring that British girl with you."She told me, I nodded and excited the Big House. I didn't have to look hard, because she was chatting in the shade with Annabeth.

They were out of earshot, but I could make out a few words. But I still couldn't understand them.

I walked closer and cleared my throat, they heard and turned to face me.

"Yes Nico?" Annabeth asked. "Oh I need her to come with me." I said pointing at the girl I'd saved yesterday. They exchanged glances but the girl stepped forward. She looked well rested, but she had multiple scars and brusies still. She kept glancing at the sun, and cringing like it was hurting her. I led her to the Big House.

Once there she followed me towards the huge doors where Chiron's office was. I pushed on the heavy doors and they slowly opened, we entered the room to find Chiron reading a book.

"Excuse me Chiron, you said you wanted to talk to me?" I spoke up. He shut his book and looked us over, more so the girl I was with.

"Yes, but first I wish to speak with the girl." He said, I nodded and she stepped forward.

"What is your name miss?" He asked, "Cortana."

"And whats your godly parent?" "Shiva, goddess of winter." He seemed to be writing this down.

"I see, come with me, I have the perfect weapon for you." He said leading her to a huge safe where the armory was. She came back moments later with an ancient looking book and a flute made of solid ice.

"Alright now, Nico I want you to visit the Oracle, with Cortana." He instructed. I nodded, usually he sent campers alone to visit the Oracle, Rachel was living in camp now, well in the summers anyway. She should be here still, school started again in a few weeks.

I motioned for her to follow me as we excited the huge doors again. I led her up the stairs to the Attic, where Rachel usually was, the place had gotten cleaned, she wanted another room made for the memories and recovered artifacts from past quests, so in the room just past the attic they were all cleaned and put in glass containors with plagues that described them, Cortana passed them, stopping on occastions to look at them.

The dragon claw Luke had gotten scratched with....The scarf of Aphordite Annabeth had recovered......The poisious blades the jail guard, Kampe had......

Past the memories we entered a door to where Rachel was. Inside Rachel appeared to be in deep thought, staring at a blank canvas, but thats not was I was really looking at, it was another painting, it was the exact image of Cortana, but I was standing right next to her. I stared at the painting until I noticed Cortana had looked at it too and was opening her mouth to ask about it. But I blurted out at Rachel before she could ask anything.

"Rachel! We uhhh came to get a Prophecy....." I said quickly. She nodded and eyed Cortana curiously.

"Hello Cortana, nice to meet you finally." She said as she extended her arm. Cortana shook it, but Rachel's body shook with the touch of her cold skin.

And then she stopped moving, like she'd been kicked.

_Winter and Death shall embark on a quest,  
Where Winter herself awaits rescue from her endless rest.  
And meet with the Huntress pure of heart,  
And realize where you'd belong from the start._

Cortana stared at Rachel intently with her icy blue eyes. Before nodding slightly.

"Thanks Rachel." I said. "Hey its what I'm here for isn't it?" She said, Cortana smiled, I led her out of the room and into the Hall of memories as I'd like to call it.

"I wonder what it means..." Cortana said after awhile. "What?" I'd asked stupidly.

"The whole riddle thing. I mean,  
_Winter and Death shall embark on a quest, _Thats gotta be you and I right?  
And then the whole, _'Where Winter herself awaits rescue from an endless rest. _  
Well thats gotta be my mom, after all she controls all thats winter........." She paused to think.

"But the rest, I mean I can't make sense of it, I don't know a huntress or anyone of pure heart. And where someone belonged from the start, I have no idea what that could mean." She finished.

I stood there for a moment thinking it through. "Yeah, but the thing about prophices, you usually can never figure them out, till your done with it." I stated, she nodded. "I suppose." She sighed in defeat.

"Well, I suppose if a goddess is in danger we'd better head off as soon as possible." I said finally, she nodded.

"Who are we going to take with us?" She asked quietly.

"Excuse me?" I asked. "Well the centaur told me we could take more people with us if we got a quest, so...." She stopped her sentence.

"Oh yeah, I guess." I said thinking of who to take. "How about Annabeth, or one of the Athena's children, there smart and know alot about monsters." I suggested. She beamed, "Yes, lets ask her."

So she ran off to find Annabeth, moments later she returned with the nineteen year old following.

"Of course I'll come, I haven't had a quest in so long, plus I'm pretty sure my cabinmates can handle things without me." She explained.

"Alright, well what about Percy?" I said. we could now take more than three camperss on a quest, thanks to Percy.

"Well we could always use some definite power, you know, just in case." Cortana agreed. Annabeth shook her head yes. But I could tell Cortana felt bad for them, always being busy, never getting time alone....

He strod up to us after Annabeth had asked him. "Of course I'll go, someone has to make sure we all come back alive don't I?" He smirked.

"Oh sure Percy, you'll be the one keeping us alive...." Annabeth said sarcasticly.

And with that we headed to our cabins to pack, I got out my black backpack and put a canteen of nectar, some ambrosia, extra clothes, water, food, a backup weapon, though I doubted I'd need it and some other things I thought I might need.

Cortana's P.O.V.

Okay I'll admit Rachel's whole Oracle thing creeped me out, she could see the future! I sighed and grabbed my weatherproof duffle bag, which was white, I grabbed extra clothes, my flute and ancient book of magic songs, some nectar and ambrosia, which Chiron gave me earlier, some golden drachmas, some human money, food and water, and my celestial bronze ice skates.

Annabeth's P.O.V.

I hurridly packed my things, clothes, water, food, nectar , ambrosia, money, drachmas, my bronze knife, a book on architechure, Deadalus's laptop, and of course my invisablility hat, all in my brown backpack.

Percy's P.O.V.

I quickly grabbed my waterproof bag and started stuffing things into it, clothes, water & food, drachmas, nectar and ambrosia, money, and of course my magical sword Riptide.

Once finished I quickly rushed outside. The others were waiting for me, and Argus, the camps security, was standing there, his thousands of eyes looking everywhere, Cortana gulped and stood behind Nico, like she was afraid it was going to eat her.

And when all his eyes focused on her, her eyes went wide in terror and I swore she jumped back five feet. She took a shaky breath.

"Alright Argus, everyone's ready now, I just wish I knew where that goddess was!" Nico mummered. Argus nodded and we entered our cover up strawberry van.

We told him to take us to the nearest cemetery, to see if Nico could get any spirits to help.


	4. Speaking to Spirits

Chapter 3- Speaking to Spirits

Nico's P.O.V.

Argus drove us to the nearest cemetery, where we would try to see if they know anything. Once we arrived we thanked Argus and made our way to the entrance of the cemetery.

Cortana made her way inder a dying willow tree, along with Percy and Annabeth. Soon it would be dark, the perfect time to do the summoning.

Not long and it was dark, the moon was slowly rising, casting an eerie glow, the trees and forest seemed to get spooky and creepy looking. The graves looked scarier, the wind hollowed, which wasn't exactly helping the mood...

Annabeth's and Cortana's hair was blowing all over, soon we began digging. Not long after we started we had to good sized hole, I nodded at the others, they stepped out of the pit and stood near me, dirt splattered all over them.

I then got some food out and threw it in there along with some drinks. I began chanting and spirits began to gather around the pit.

"One at a time." I ordered. One ghost stepped forward, it drank taking a more solid form. It appeared to be a small girl, probably only 5 or 6, she wore a baby blue dress, she was barefoot and her carmel colored hair was in a long braid. In her small hand was a small teddy bear with a blue bowtie.

"What is your name?" I asked. She had a look of confusion for a moment, then she spoke. "Arriana." She replied. (Air-E-on-ah)

"We need some help, do you know of anything that has to do with the Winter goddess?" I asked slowly. She appeared to be in deep thought.

"I don't remember." She anwsered quietly. I pulled out my black iron sword, she yelped and cowered. "Now do you remember..." I pressed.

"I- Idon't know anything!" She whimpered. Suddenly I got a hard shove, almost pushing me into the dirt. I turned to see a unhappy Cortana.

"What is wrong with you?" She yelled softly. "Its a little girl, you can't do that to her!" She whispered angerly. I held my hands up.

"She's a ghost, a soul, the undead..." I could've gone on. But she interrupted me. "I really don't care Nico. Come on imagine if you were her, being held against for your life over a question, even if she is a ghost, she still has feelings and she is still a little girl." She scolded, and before I could stop her she jumped into the pit, landing next to the girl.

She tried reaching out to her, but her form faded. She looked confused, until she removed her hand and her form came back.

"Its okay, Arriana. He didn't mean to frighten you." She comforted, the girl looked up to Cortana. She sniffled and wiped away an invisible tear.

"Thank you Daughter of Shivra." She whispered. "So you know nothing of my mother then?" She asked kindly. "I..." She started.

"Well, I heard that she was captured by goddess immortal son and was incased in ice, and if you don't hurry soon she'll die." She said softly and sadly looking down.

I heard her gulp, and she looked sickly pale, why did she have to say, 'if you don't hurry, she'll die'. I desended into the pit.

"Do you know where she's being held?" I asked softly.

She hestitated," I belive somewhere in Antartica..." She anwsered finally. I nodded, as did Cortana. She thanked the girl before slowly trudging back up to the surface. I let the other spirits eat and drink.

"How in all of Hades are we going to get all the way to Antartica before she dies? We don't even know how much time she has left..." Cortana groaned, I felt bad, how would I like it if I just found out my godly parent was gonna die, and her fate rested on your shoulders.

"Well I don't recommend a plane, cause I'm still not sure about Zeus..." Percy added.

"Well, how fast are Pegisi?" She asked. "Pegisi don't like me." I said in a slight pout. She groaned and sat on her bag.

"Well, we could try praying to our godly parents, even if they're on their deathbed they always seem to help." Annabeth suggested smartly.

I betcha anything all of us thought at the same time, 'Why didn't I think of that?'. We headed to a more open space and prayed.

'Hades, this might not be the right time, but I need some help, send me sometype of transportation?' I prayed.

Cortana's P.O.V.

I shifted nervously before sitting on my knees and praying. 'Mother? Look we're gonna come and save you, but we need your help, please bring me some kind of transportation...'

Percy's P.O.V.

I had faith in my father, know doubt would he come through. 'Hey dad...how's it going undersea? Well I'm helping a friend, her mother, well you probably know her, Shivra, the winter goddess? She's dying, and I need to get to Antartica fast.'

Annabeth's P.O.V.

I stood, holding my arms together, and prayed silently, 'Mom? I need your help, send me something that'll get me to Antartica.' I prayed.

(In this story I'm changing it so that they will be able to talk to they're gods animal sign.)

I watched as a huge silvery owl landed in the soft sand of the beach next to me. It was beautiful, a silver belly, and each feather tipped in silver, and its main body color thunderstorm gray, with sparkling gray eyes and white tallons.

'Hello Annabeth, I've been waiting for you, my name is Graystone.' It spoke to me inside my head. I was suprised, I thought only children of the big three could speak to animals.

I looked over to see Percy with a white stallion that seemed to have sea shells in its hoofs. And when it stepped in water its back legs turned into a beautiful fish tail.

Percy's P.O.V.

'Percy, it is good to meet you, my name is Hurricane.' It spoke to me. I was used to speaking with animals, but this was just awesome.

I looked over at Cortana, who had a beautiful snowy white polar bear, which was easily the size of a hellhound. It had beautiful black claws and blazing blue eyes, its fur seemed to shine as if it was beautiful snowflakes.

Cortana's P.O.V.

I watched, my mouth hung open, as the most beautiful polar bear ever appeared before me, I slowly extended my hand, and it bowed, I stroked its white fur, feeling soft as fresh snow and as cold as a blizzard.

'Cortana, your mother awaits. I am Glacier, pleased to meet you mylady.' It spoke to me inside my head.

Nico's P.O.V.

I watched as the most fearsome hellhound I'd ever seen appeared from the shadows. It was pitch black with some red tints, it had fearless red eyes, intimidating sharp teeth and ferious sharp claws.

'Hello Nico, Hades has told me much about you, now come on are we gonna save your girlfriends goddess or what?' It spoke to me. I made a glare as I spoke back.

'She is so not my girlfriend.'

We all mounted our animals and set off across the ocean. Annabeth's owl flew swiftly above us, its grace so beautiful. Percy's horse slash fish thing swimmed gracefully and with speed.

Cortana's Polar bear, for a ton of weight and heavy fur billowing everywhere, kept up pretty good, and its didn't seem to mind the cold tempatures of the water and air as we got closer to our destination.

And my Hellound, kept up well, doggypaddling quickly, and blending in to the dark water and night. The others would sometimes squint in my direction as if trying to see what I was on.

I looked around, it had to be about midnight, Cortana was sleeping peacefully, clutching her white bag as her bear swam on.

Percy's was barely awake, but slouched on his fish thing tiredly, clutching his bag loosely.

Annabeth's Owl kept up gracefully, casting shadows into the murky water, I could see her body, sleeping on her side, clutching her knees, and the owl had her bag, carrying it in its strong beak.

I slowly closed my eyes as I clutched my bag, and falling asleep as my black as night hound paddled on.

In a day tops, if the weather kept up like this, we'd be they're in the morning..


	5. Winter Wonderland

Chapter 4- Winter Wonderland

Nico's P.O.V.

Just like I predictided I blinked my eyes open to hear the waves of the ocean, I could barely see the tiny dot of our destination. I looked over, Annabeth's owl sent a shadow casted over us, as it glided on the smooth winds. Percy was passed out on his fish horse, drooling all over it in the process, but it didn't seem to mind. Cortana intertwined her hands in her polar bears thick fur, as if holding on for life, but her face was peaceful, and her bag gragged in the water, I was going to pick it up, but I realized it was waterproof. I rubbed my eyes, and looked at my hellhound who was still paddeling like the nights swim had barely took up any of his energy.

'Mornin' demigod of death, sleep well?' It asked.

'Fine, how long till we get there?' I asked him.

'I dunno, but I get this funny feeling about something, I can't explain it...Its too hard to tell, but if all goes good maybe another two hours.' He replied.

I glanced at Annabeth, I noticed she was up as well. But her bird suddenly started squawking and flapping its wings hard. In the noise Cortana's eyes shot open and sat up like it was a reflex. She didn't know what was going on but she turned to Percy.

"Percy! Wake up! Percy...Percy...PERCY!" She yelled slightly shaking him. No use, he just groaned a little and turned away. She huffed impatiently.

I saw her use her hands as cups and scoop out the water, and before I could stop her she poured it all over him. He yelped and fell off his fish horse. Good thing he was the son of Posidion. He came back up after longer than any other demi-god or human could he coughed once and gave Cortana a nasty look before swimming back to his fishy horse.

"What? You wouldn't wake up and Annabeth's bird is freaking out." She stated simply, pointing at Annabeth's bird who was still flipping out.

"Guys, I-I don't know whats wrong...It won't listen." She called from above. We looked ahead, and then saw what she was talking about. Ahead of us, like some attack, was a huge wave, followed by more waves. Every one looked wide-eyed.

'Oh no! I knew something was up, something or someone does _not _want us to get to Antartica!' My hellhound stated the obivous.

'No really! What do we do?' I snapped. "I dunno ask the half dolphin over there!' It snapped back. I rolled my eyes.

"Percy, what do we do? You know about the sea right?' I asked hopefully, those waves looked meaner the closer we got.

"Well I suppose I could try to divert it, but with waves that strong, I'm not sure if I can." He suggested just as hopeful, he closed his eyes, we all studied the waves carefully, alls they did was kind of splatter and get a bit smaller. But he was starting to change their course. One after another the humungus waves split in two and went around us.

I smiled happily. But I noticed Percy was struggling to control it, it wouldn't last long.

"Guys, hury Percy won't last much longer!" I yelled our animals sped up rapidly, we where almost there when Percy lost it and we smashed into a huge waves. It was slow motion, the wave caught Annabeth's bird and it fell into the freezing water, it rose up flapping and cawing for its life. Annabeth wasn't much better.

Percy and his horse were fine, but they were having troubles fighting the current.

Cortana's face filled with fear as she too fell into the mighty cold waves, the cold probably wouldn't be a problem, but the waves were, each time it hit, she and her polar bear would go under for long and then come up gasping for air, she wrapped her arms around its neck, though it wasn't of much help.

I suddenly felt the freezing tempature of the water, like a thousand knives stabbing me everywhere, my hair in my eyes, my clothes soaked, and no doubt catching hypothermia, my hellhound tried its best to fight the waves, but we were only getting tired, soon we would all drownd, well all except Percy and his horse...

"Cortana! Try freezing the waves, its our only hope!" Annabeth suddenly had another brillant idea. "I-I can't. I don't know h-how!" She anwsered hastily, she was shivering from the waves, but she had to be one hundred times better than us.

"You _have _to try! Ice and winter runs in your blood, just Try!" She pleaded. Cortana bit her lip and closed her eyes.

Cortana's P.O.V.

I knew Annabeth was right I had to try, I focused on the waves, becoming smooth and hard as ice, enough for a group of demi-gods and their sacred animals. I still wasn't entirely sure if I belived in all this god stuff quite yet. Suddenly the waves stopped I heard a cracking noise, I felt a strong pain in my body.

Nico's P.O.V.

I watched as the wave dropped, and with a shrill cracking noise the water in front of us smoothed and turned into white cold ice, a sheet in front, big enough for us. I watched as she was the first one to rise from the water and get onto the sheet of ice, she had positioned herself on top of the bear again, it shook like a dog, splattering water all over us. She turned, "You guys comining or shall I just leave you here to freeze?" She said. I nodded and commanded my hellhound to get onto the iced water. He whimpered once on as he skidded around without traction.

I had to laugh, Annabeth Bird landed and walked with us, because its wings were to wet to fly, and Percy's fish horse turned back into a white stallion as it climbed onto the frozen water, Percy mounted on his back. As we walked the water turned into ice in front of Cortana's polar bear, so we stayed behind her.

It wasn't long until we met land, it was undescribable, it was covered in snow and ice for miles. Trees, though there were few, looked frozen, but very well alive. Glaciers floated nearby. Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound, not like the sound of Ice freezing,this was more like breaking. Cortana's eyes went wide.

"Everybody run!" She yelled suddenly as her polar bear sprinted ahead. "The ice is breaking!' She yelled before she got too far. I looked back, and in my horror, the ice _was _breaking, cracking all over. I commanded my hellhound, which I descovered his name wa Gore to run, which he did, and in seconds we were close to Cortana, her hair blowing back all over. He was careful not ot lose traction. Percy's horse wasn't too far behind ethier. And we didn't worry about Annabeth, who was safely in the air.

"Guys, quick, inside that glacier!" She yelled from above, she pointed, and we saw, not far away was a huge glacier with a hole, big enough for all of us inside, though we'd have to jump it. We all sped up. Gore jumoed early, but soared clear of it and into the hole gacefully. Cortana's Polar bear and Percy's horse couldn't jump that high, so they skidded to a halt in front of the hole, Cortana was looking everywhere.

Annabeth gracefully soared into the opening in the glacier. "Cortana, create some smaller glaciers to jump on!" The always brillant Annabeth shouted. I heard Cortana mutter some words like a command, "Rise." Was all she said, but three small ice platforms rose from the ground, from shortest to tallest. Cortana looked back nervously, the ice was speeding up and if she didn't jump now, she'd fall into the icy water.

Percy and Cortana jumped at the same time, Percy's horse easily cleared it like a hurdle, Cortana the same, but Percy slid a little, and in a matter of seconds the slammed into the small caveran just as the ice opened and the stepping stones fell into the icy water below.

Cortana and her polar bear was out of breath, panting heavily. Her bear collapsed near the cave opening and Cprtana leaned against in while looking for stuff in her bag. Percy's horse laid down folding its legs as it leaned on the wall, Percy sat and leaned on it.

Annabeth's Owl landed near Percy's horse, it sat like it was laying eggs, but Annabeth wasn't comfortable there so she rested on Percy, sitting beside him and resting her head on his shoulder, Percu wrapped his arm around her waist. I started a fire to keep warm and Gore currled up like a dog across from Cortana, I sat near the fire. We were all still soaked, and all our lips were purple and red faced, well Cortana wasn't bad. Soon we all grew tired, Annabeth felt so comfortable thee on Percy that she just fell asleep, Percy dug a blanket out of his bag and wrapped around both of them, and he soon fell asleep. Cortana laid on the cold ice floor next to her bear, folding her arms around its arms and resting her head on its shoulder. I saw her look enviously at Percy and Annabeth before she started staring at the fire. I sighed and decided to talk to her.

"So, hows your first adventure?" I asked quietly. She looked up at me with those percing icy eyes. "Good, kinda scary sometimes, but I like it, I always loved the cold." She said just as quiet.

"Yeah, I like winter too, the sun bothers me." I said. "Me too, but its worse for me, Apollo doesn't like my mother so the sun always hurts me." She anwsered. "Hurts you?" I asked.

"Yeah it kinda like burns, always like a sunburn, it hurts to move to much...Bloody global warming..." She cursed. I smiled at her British accent becoming stronger. "And don't worry about the other gods, everybody hates Hades." I tried reassuring.

"But I've got almost as many, Persephone, Demeter, Apollo, Dionysus, Hades...it goes on." She listed looking down. Hades hated Shivra? But then again Hades hates everyone, and plus he always agrees with Persephone. She was right that was an awful lot.

"Ohh and Posidion, I mean _he _doesn't hate me, just all living sea creatures do..." She added. "But why?" I knew I shouldn't have asked, but my ADHD got the better of me.

"Well the sea creatures don't like it because Shivra freezes all the water in winter, causing some to die and the tempature to drop fast, but they don't realize thats the way to purify the water, Persephone, because she ruins her summer and all the pretty flowers by freezing them, Dememter, causing horrible cropping, Apollo, I'm not really sure about that one, Dionysus, freezes his wine crops, and Hades...Well you got me there too." She sighed. But she rested her head back onto her bear signaling she didn't want to talk.

"Goodnight." I whispered and I fell asleep. But I could here her faint, "Good night."


	6. Splitting up

Chapter 5- Splitting Up

Cortana's P.O.V.

My eyes fluttered open to the bright sun of Antartica. I groaned slightly and rubbed my eyes. I woke seeing that Nico was awake and cleaning up the mess the fire had caused, Annabeth and Percy where still sound asleep, in the same position too. I stared at them some more, they were lucky to have each other. Back in the orphange I had no one, we all depended on one another, looking out for each other, but when some one was adopted, you couldn't do anything to stop them from taking them, thats why I never trust people, because you never know when someones gonna leave you forever. It was always a sad day when someone got adopted, never seeing that person again...And losing someone you love to complete strangers is cruel, having your heart ripped out and never to heal.

I saddened at the thought, Glacier was awake, staring out into the vast lengths of ice and snow. I looked up to see Nico looking at me. When he realized I saw him he quickly went back to the fire. I swear I heard his hellhound snicker.I realized I still had the ancient looking book that Chiron gave me in my lap, out of curiousity, and ADHD, I opened the book to read it. Inside every page was layered in dust, which I cleaned off. But other than that there were thousand of songs that each do a different thing related to Shivra's powers.

My dylexia was acting up, so I didn't read very much before getting frustrated and shutting the book, stuffing it into my bag. Nico must have noticed my hasty anger.

"You okay?" He asked. I locked eyes with him for a moment. "Bloody dylexia..." I replied. He smirked. "Yeah it is kinda a pain isn't it?" I huffed, hoping he'd take that as a yes.

I heard a groan and saw Percy was up and waking Annabeth. But after a few trys she gave in, and in a few minutes they were ready.

"So, whats the plan?" I asked, mostly to Annabeth though. Percy opened his mouth to say something but Annabeth interrupted.

"Well since Antartica is one of the biggest places int he world, I suggest we all split up and search for anything that your mother may be trapped in." She said as if it was the simplist thing ever.

"I was so going to say that!" Percy declared, even though we knew he wasn't. I smiled at his comment. Nico opened his mouth but Percy interrupted.

"I call Annabeth!" He shouted. I almost laughed. Nico smirked at them as they gathered there things and before you knew it, they were on there way to the east side of the island. And Percy shouted, "We'll keep in contact through Iris!" Which Nico explained to me was the Goddess of Rainbows, and pretty much served as a Insant Messenger for Demi-Gods.

We headed off, barely able to jump over the huge crack the freak weather had created, no one could ever be able to jump across there on land.

Anyway, we walked, err our animals carried us across the frozen iceland for ever! Soon I ran out of water, because the bloody sun is so bloody HOT! And now I have no energy and am in serious need of water.

Nico noticed this and said, "Hey...uhh, Cortana? You okay?" He asked stupidly, of course I wasn't okay! I looked down at myself, I was red all over, it was like the world's worst sunburn...But I was so drained of water that I could barely mumble.

"...F...ine..." I slurred. I commanded my polar bear to stop because he stopped. He gave me a very confused look. He hopped off his hound and walked over, my bear turned to face him and growled dispite that it too was wasting away in the awful heat.

"Calm...Down...Glacier..." I barely whispered. He approched me and put his icy cold hand to my forehead, it felt good against my over heated body. "You're burning up." He stated obviously. And before I could protest he scooped me up bridal style. I tried telling him not to, but it came out in words no one could ever possibly understand. I ordered my bear to follow as he balanced me on his hound and, once he was on, bounded forward.

Nico's P.O.V.

Degradation...She was suffering from Degradation...I hurriedly made Gore move forward. We covered vast amounts of ice, looking for anything that could possibly hold water. Soon I came to a cavern, I hopped off Gore, and he curled up in front of the doorway, Inside the hollow Ice seemed to glow with bright blue patterns, and there was one small pond, filled with clear drinking water. Glacier followed us inside and quickly began drinking the cooled water. I kneeled next to the water, and gently set Cortana's limp body into the freezing water. then I gently pressed my hand to her stomach and sumerged her into the water, almost immediantly her regular pale complextion started returning.

She gasped and coughed a bit, but swam out of the water and cupped the water, drinking it hungerly. Her whole body was soaked in the water, it was still running down her face.

"I...Err, Thanks Nico...For saving me and all." She muttered sheepishly, her polar bear returned to gaurding the cave with my hellhound.

"Hey no problem." I said. She huddled in the corner, pressing her back to the wall, she brought her knees to her stomach, hugging them. She studied the pool water contently.

"Hey, as long as we're together, we might as well learn about each other." I said suddenly, it waas weird for me, usually I Never wanted to talk, or meet other people, I usually preferred silence, but I had to know about this girl, she just seemed so...different.

She didn't say anything so I figured I'd have to pry it out of her.

"So, you must've had it rough with the monster on your way to camp." I said refering to her scars and brusies. She locked eyes with me, giving me the iciest glare ever.

She looked at me in disbelief. "You think I got my brusies and scars from monsters?" She said. She shook her head before continuing.

She laughed slightly. "Well if you must know, I got these scars fromt he orphange." She gently traced one of the white scars that went down her arm. She muttered something that sounded like, "You misbehave one time, and then they punish you..."

I felt guilty for asking... "Wow...look I'm sorry...I shouldn't have asked..."

"No, no, It...Its fine...I mean, I should've told you sooner..." She bit her lip. I looked away. I saw a tear escaped her eye, trailing down her face, and falling to the ground, freezing into a new spot on contact. She quickly wiped her eyes and rested her head on her chin staring at the ground absent-mindedly.

I wanted to go and comfort her...but somehow my body stayed glued the the floor, not moving. I felt bad for her, I mean, regular schools for a kid with ADHD and dyslexia was bad enough, but going to a strict orphange and _always_ wanting to ask about things or do something your not supposed to had to be worse.

I looked aover at her again, she was still hugging her knees, but her head layed asleep, peacefully. I figured I better sleep too, so I layed down and closed my eyes, hoping for sleep.


	7. Nightmares

Chapter 6- Nightmares

Cortana's P.O.V.

Nico told me about Demigod dreams...and he was right...They do ___suck_.

_Nico, he was in a beautiful palace, it was made of sheer ice, with pillars of crystal everywhere, his reflection showed on each pillar, it made me dizzy.  
So many Nico's, almost like a fun house maze..._

_But Nico wasn't having any fun, he was running around frantically, corridor after corridor, he seemed to be searching for something._

_He stopped suddenly, turning in circles but only finding more replicas of himself. An eerie voice laughed mockingly, it was horrible, evil, and vile.  
It made me see my fears, He also had his black sword drawn, ready to strike._

_"Run run Nico, you'll never find her! Never!" It laughed menacingly._

_Nico's expression turned angry as he cracked a crystal pillar with his black sword. _

_"What have you done with her?" He shouted loudly. "Ha ha ha...Nico, don't you understand, you'll never find her...Say goodbye ." It laughed._

_Nico's replica's were replaced with mine, only...I was chained to a wall somewhere, and I was bloody and beaten, more than I already was, I looked close to dying and had tears streaming down my cheeks._

_"Nico...help...please..." I barely whispered. Nico ran to one of the pillars with my image on it._

_"Say goodbye...forever!" The evil voice cackled as it rang in my ears. And just a my image in the pillar screamed as a shadowy figure approached me, just as he was about to strike..._

I woke up, screaming...Loudy like high pitched, the kind of scream you only hear in horror movies.

*Before Cortana woke up*

Nico's P.O.V.

I kept hearing a voice...I woke up to see Cortana, sprawled on the ice floor. She kept turning and tossing restlessly, and mumuring.

"Let me go..." She would mumur. "He'll find me, don't hurt him..." She mumbled.

I realized she was having a nightmare. I stood and kneeled by her, her voice became louder as she dreamt. Louder and louder until she was almost screaming.

I grabbed her shoulders a shook her gently, speaking to her. "Cortana, wake up!" I said. But she only thrashed harder and tried hitting me.

"Cortana, you have to wake up! You're having a nightmare!" I said louder. That time her eyes shot open and she forced herself to set up, almost crashing her face into mine. Her eyes were horror filled and she screamed, like _really _screamed, the kind in horror movies, right before the killer kills them.

Once she stopped screaming tears instantly streamed down her face, faster and faster while she kept sobbing, while trying to talk.

"T-the voice! T-that voice was sooo...evil!" She would sob. "I-It was so h-horrible!"

And then she would clamp her ears shut, like it was ringing in her ears. "Make it stop!" She would scream or "Go away!"

"Cortana! Its okay, everything's fine!" I said loudly, I still had a hold of her shoulders. "No! No its not!" She would shout.

"Cortana, look at me. I'm fine, you'll be okay!" I said. She just turned her head to the side and squeezed her eyes shut. I grabbed her head and made it turn to me.

"No I won't! I won't!" She said quieter. She sniffed, and blinked her eyes open, which were very wet, so I guess her vision was blurry. She wiped her eyes with her hand, and looked at me sadly.

"It won't be okay...It won't." She whispered. "What happened?" I asked. Releasing her head from my grasp, although she didn't move. She took a much needed breath and told me everything, breaking down crying everyonce and awhile.

I sat down, taking it all in, knew most demigod dreams were about the future or past, but that was horrible...

"I'm sorry Cortana..." Was all I could think to say... "I...Is it really going to happen?" She was almost hypervenilating, she was deeply breath. Sometimes sobbing horribly.

"I can tell you one thing, I'm not going to let that happen." I said. She sniffed. "But..." She hesitated. "Thanks Nico." She said. And gave me a small smile.

"Anytime, now we better get to searching." He said as we packed up and left to find my mother's palace.

Percy's P.O.V.

After we had made a hasty exit we traveled about 60 miles or so before we came to a huge cashem. Made of ice... And to make things worse, they're was barely enough room for my horse to travel on, and I had to watch my step, because one wrong move and I would be out. Annabeth's owl was near me, she kept asking me If we should cross on her owl, but me, being me, couldn't do that. Now I know why she always called me 'Seaweed Brain'...

"Maybe we should stop and make camp?" Annabeth asked eyeing the thin ledge I was on. "How about after, we cross this totally dangerous cashem?" I said, then mentally smacked myself.

"No really Seaweed Brain, I was thinking that maybe we should came right on the narrow legde, how 'bout that?" She teased.

I just rolled my eyes, and continue walking down the narrow ledge, my horse right behind me. It had to be about thirty more minutes until we came to a opening in the cashem, so we decided to came there. It was stragne because all a sudden when we hadn't seen any trees or anything, suddenly its like we were in a forest, there was snow covered trees everywhere, they actually looked like they were made from ice, because the trunks and branches were pure white, we figured because of frost, even the bristle's were pure white.

We decided to came in a small area with trees incircling it, not a lot of the icy wind could get through, so we started a fire and laid down our stuff.

After that we sat next to each other near the fire, and it was pretty warm, my horse lay beside me and Annabeth's owl huddled by her.

"I wonder how Nico and Cortana are doing..." Annabeth said, poking the flames with a stick. "I'm sure they're fine. After all she is with Nico." I said reminding her how protective Nico was over his friends.

"Yeah, I guess your right...I just hate not knowing if they're okay..." She sighed, staring deep into the flames. I rubbed her back soothingly, I knew how difficult it was for herto accept not knowing things, being the Daughter of Athena and all.

"It'll be okay, and if you're still worried in the morning we can always count on Iris." I reassured her. She nodded, it was getting late, so we shuffled into our sleeping bags and went to sleep...

I'm SO sorry I took so long, I was having major writer's block...


	8. Shivra's Palace?

Chapter 7- Shivra's Palace

Annabeth's P.O.V.

I woke up earlier that morning, to the sound of snow crunching as it was being walked on. I flopped to my belly an dlooked up, intinctively grabbing my knife and crouching on my feet. I breathed a sigh of relief as it was Percy.

"Morning Sleeping Beauty." He greeted hugging me. "Morning Seaweed Brain." I said.

"So have you decided if you wanted to call on Cortana and Nico?" He ask me, fiddling with last nights fire. I paused for a moment.

"I think we should, just to be safe." I said. He nodded and began making a fountain of some sort. "Right and if you don't quit worrying all your hair will fall out." He joked, I playfully hit him, muttering 'Shut up!'.

Soon we had a small fountain, I threw a golden drachma and said my prayer. Soon a vision of Nico and Cortana riding their animals, it sraced Cortana who yelped and hailed to a stop, Nico looked at her, concerned, before turning to me.

"Hey Annabeth, Percy. Hows the search going?" He asked. "Well for finding nothing so far, pretty good." I said. He shrugged, as Cortana silently cursed.

"Us neither, I'm starting to wonder if she really is here or not." Nico said quiet enough so Cortana couldn't hear.

"Yeah I know, but we have to keep searching for Cortana's sake." I said.

"Yes...Hey did you guys have any dreams last night?" He asked suddenly. I looked back a Percy who shrugged his shoulders. I pursed my lips. "Nope, why, did you guys have one?" I asked.

"No, I was just wondering, it may be of help to us." He said. I nodded, "Alright guys, continue the search, see ya." I said slashing the mist with my hands.

Nico's P.O.V.

We set off the next morning walking through vast lengths of snow. Well thats what we were doing until we came across a narrow, thin bridge made of ice. I gulped, we hopped off our animals, this was as far as they would go. Cortana seemed to have emense traction on the ice, not having any problems with slipping or falling. I on the other hand had to move very slowly, as not to fall. But we got there eventually.

Now the only problem was, there was more ice, and a palace made of ice, which I already figured was Shivra's. And it appeared the only way to get there was to walk, and not fall through the ice.

Cortand took off her shoes, and slipped on some ice skates, that of course, had celestial bronze blades. She skated across gracefully as I shadow trevled to the other side, enveloping me in my personal cloud of darkness. Alright I knew she was a quite person. how wouldn't talk unless spoken to first. And I had to fix that.

"So, once this quest is good and done, you're going to be living at camp right?" I asked, she let out a small squeak at my sudden voice. She looked down, with a a meek voice she replied. "I...Err, I guess so...I mean, there really is no other choice right.." She said still avoiding eye contact with me.

"Well for you, yes." Alright she was the shy type, but definetly proud and independant.

"So...what about you? What do you do?" She asked, skating backwards to face me, but still not looking at me.

"Me, well I just stay there all the time! Its a great place really, everyone's practically family!" I replied in my usual childish loud voice. She looked at me in confusion, like she was looking a different person.

"Whats up with the sudden change of tone?" She said, I also noticed she pronounced her 'thats' weird, it sounded more like, 'thawts' or when she said a friend she usually said, 'chap or mate.' And her 'whats' were different too, like 'whawts'. But I found it quite cute, she also kind of had that tone of voice like a...school student or something, mannerly. (A.N~ Guys, I have decided changing Cortana's flute and music book to a short throwing knife.)

"Oh nothing, just I really don't open up to a person until I'm quite sure I like them, or know them." I replied. (Note, most people who have lost someone important to them, like Nico, tend to do this.)

She smiled a bit, her usually dull eyes light up with a new brightness. She looked happy, and beautiful...The way her complextion and hair seemed to glow with the snows silent falling. I tried not to stare as we continued traveling through the icy abiss. I continued telling her about Camp Half Blood as she laughed and smiled with me.

"No way, Connor and Travis Stoll, they did that! Oh those poor Aphrodite children." She laughed.

"I know right." I said.

"And so you guys all fought in a war?" She repeated. "Yup, It was awesome." I said. She giggled.

"And then, Percy and Annabeth a dating, but for like four years they hid it?" She said. "Uh huh." I comfirmed.

"But Rachel still likes Percy even though she's an Oracle? Isn't she supposed to be a maiden or something, and a fourtune teller right?" She asked.

"Pretty much, more like a Quest comfirmer though, and Annabeth and her really, really hate each other still." I added. She nodded.

"And the Hunters, immportal maidens forever? And with a goddess?" She said. I seriously hoped she wasn't thinking about joining.

"Yeah." I said.

"And Thaila, daughter of Zeus, and was once a pinetree? Thats so freaky. She's a maiden too right?" She asked. I nodded.

"Oh wow, it all sounds...to fantasy, I thought stuff like that was only in children's fairy tales?" She said.

"Yeah, you'll say that when you get attacked by a monster." I rolled my eyes.

"And Tyson, Percy's half brother, but he's a cyclopes?" She asked. "Yeah, but don't worry, he's a total softy." I said.

"I really want to get there now. So pick up the pace, I don't wanna be here forever!" She said suddenly picking up speed. I ran to catch up, careful not to slip on the smooth ice.

"Hey! Look, I really want to get home too, but sadly I can't move that fast!" I said panting a bit, she stopped. Eyes wide, pale faced, and totally frightened. I looked confused momentarily, until I saw the real picture. And it was huge. There a gigantic lion, completey made of ice, that spiked and sharpened for its mane, tail, claws, and its fur looked very, very hard to break. I gapped for a moment until it lunged at Cortana who narrowly skated away, she looked ready to faint any moment, but I grabbed my sword and wave dit, getting the lions attention. It turned to me, letting out an angry roar, flicking its tail murderously.

It clawed at me, making a good sized claw mark in the very hard ice, Cortana was gone, I realized she was trying to figure out what to do, she had absoulutly no expirence in fighting, I scowled, this was why you never ever brought newbies on quest, unless they are chosen by the Oracle, which unfortunatley, this on was...

I raised my sword, "Serve me." I commanded, I always thought I sounded ghoulish when I did that, about twenty-five skeletal warriors rose from a crack in the ground, Cortana's eyes were as wide as doughnuts as about half aided her side, the others came attacking to the mighty beast.

It seemed to talk, Cortana clamped her hands over her ears, shaking her head violently. Now I finally understood, she could understand it, and whatever it was saying she was deffinetly not liking it. She once again barely dodged as his claw came in contact with the ice where she once stood. She seemed angry at it now. But she still had absoulutly no clue what to do. As of now the giant monster was ripping my skeletal warriors like chicken bones. I didn't know what to do, I wasn't smart like Annabeth, I wasn't brave like Percy. I was just me, Nico son of Hades.

I stamped my foot in frustration. I really was just me.

"Nico, watch out!" Cortana's shrill cry, woke me up from my intermost thought. I watched in horror as the sharp claws of the mighty lion came down towards me. I wanted to move, but I couldn't I was paralized.

"Nico, No!" She cried in frustration. I closed my eyes, I heard the loud peircing sound of what I thought had to be the lion's claws ripping my body into shreads.

I blinked my eyes open, slowly regaining movement. As I realized it wasn't me that was peirced, it was the monster. All around its body was giagantic icicles, at least seventy feet tall and twenty feet wide. Trapping the monster, who growled and snarled as it tried breaking the pillars, but they were harder than him.

I silently thanked every god I knew, of what force could've done it. I looked around, I saw Cortana leaning against the icicles for support, she looked ready to pass out. Then I realized she did it. I quickly ran to her.

"Nico...you...un-harmed." She said in a very drowsy voice, her eyes screamed tired. But she skated very slowly away from the monster. She looked almost zombish, very slow moverments, barely human sounds, and hardly controlably bodies.

I made her stop as we camped under a snow covered tree, she had absoulutly no problem falling asleep, so she layed down in the softly falling snow, I knew she couldn't get sick or frostbitten from the cold, so I set up a fire for me, and layed next to her and fell asleep, still listening to the weak cries of the lion.


	9. Captured?

Chapter 9- Captured

Cortana's P.O.V.

I woke up, warm. I had buried myself in snow, I was a bit wet, but warm. I looked over and tried to avoid screeching with shock, Nico was _right_ there, I turned my head to see his, inches away from mine. I took a deep breath, and unearthed myself from the snow, shaking off some that stuck to me. Nico was out, breathing softly, but non-moving, if it wasn't for his chest softly rising and falling I would've thought he was dead. I sighed, taking out my small throwing knife. (Remember I decided to change her flute to a throwing knife.) It was made of sheer ice, it would take alot to brake it, I tapped it. It returned to its form as a charm that hung from my choker, I small glittery snowflake.

I sat down in the snow, tending to the fire's remaints. After I was done I rinsed my hands with snow. I heard a grunt, as Nico squirmed in his sleep, I watched. That was his first movement since I had first awoken...But it was only seconds before her relaxed again, falling back into sleep. I stared at him a bit longer. I began tracing different patterns in the snow, absentmindedly of course. I looked to check on Nico, I suddenly noticed how...attractive he was. His hair looked soft, it was a bit shaggy, but not to bad. His eyes were dark green, his skin pale, he was also tall.

Suddenly, I felt very self-contious about how I looked. I mean, all I wore was a simple white spahgetti strap tank top, that covered my butt, and light blue jeans and white sneakers. My hair was usually down, but since I have been practicing my throwing I kept it up in a very messy ponytail, my bangs falling in front of my light, light blue eyes. I sighed, why couldn't I be prettier, like Annabeth or those Aphrodite girls? Then I mentally smacked myself, I am supposed to love who I am, no matter what. But that thought didn't last very long, as I started playing with my fingers, absent mindedly. I realized my fingernails were incredably uneven and short, from chewing them at the orphange. I muttered a curse, my hands were also quiet rough from throwing knifes all day long. I groaned a little to loudly. I heard the sound of snow being lifted, which was usually silent, I guess thats a perk from being the Daughter of Shivra.

Nico woke, propping himself up on his elbows as he looked around, his eyes ajusting to the light of the bright sun. He looked around a bit before noticing me. We rubbed his eyes.

"How long was I out?" He asked, in his tired state. "About and hour or two after I woke up." I answered. He wearily got up, walked over to me and sat down. He must have noticed how self consious I was acting before.

"You alright? You seem...off." He asked, looking me over. I turned away and blushed. "Ohh...Err...I-It was n-nothing." I choked, fiddling with my snowflake charm.

He seemed puzzled, and he also gave me a look that he knew I was lying. I guess he didn't want to bug me about it. "If you insist." He said, staring off into the sky.

I started to wonder, what if my mother wasn't here? What if it was just a trap? How would we find a palace, we've been searching for days now, and haven't come close to _anything_.

Before I realized it we were traveling, I guess in my absent mindedness I had packed up my stuff, and put on my skates. As had Nico.

Soon we came across a palace, but not just any palace, this palace was HUGE, and completely made of solid ice, with many ice pillars just like the ones I had made to trap the tiger surrounding it. It seemed to glitter and shine as snowflakes gently fell from the sky above it. And there was ancient greek markings all over it. We stood there for what must have been five minutes, gaping with eyes as wide as donuts.

I blinked a few times, "We should go in!" I exclaimed having a new feeling coming over me, without even consulting him I skated onward, the palace, was a lot bigger when you were only about five feet from it, I had to jump to reach the doorknob, which seemed like a curtosy for me to do, instead of barging in unexpected. But the moment my finger hit the button, it made a loud chime noise, like ice gently clinging against ice. And the gigantic doors whoosed open. The inside was just as beautiful, many icicles hung like wind chimes above me, gently clinging together with the cold winter breeze. The floor was clear almost homely looking ice, I could easily see my reflection in it. The walls were much the same, clear and mirror like, everywhere I looked I saw me. There were ice sculptures everywhere, so detailed and beautiful, there was also a staircase, completely made of ice. I looked behind me and saw Nico, barely standing on the ice, his arms failing all over, trying to maintain balance, he kept letting out cries like, "Whoa..." Or "Ahh."

He finally seemed to gain balance as he looked around. I saw something in the corner of my eye, it looked like a woman. Wihtout thinking I folowed it, leaving Nico to himself.

Nico's P.O.V.

I looked around the place it was pretty awesome, I turned, looking for Cortana, only for her to not be found. I kept turning in circles, "Cortana." I called, it echoed off the icey walls.

I walked forward a bit. "Cortana, very funny, now come out." I said getting more nervous by the second. I growled frustratingly. I grabbing my black iron sword from its holder and went down an hallway, endless ice walls around me, werever I looked I saw me, me, me,me. I was getting pretty preeved. Until I heard a shrill scream, one that sounded scared and beaten.

I stood still and time seemed to stop, as then I realized, that scream, was Cortana's...

It was just like her nightmare, being surrounded by elegant, beautiful ice like mirrors, only they didn't seem so nice now, more like a funhouse, but it deffinetly wasn't fun. more like teasing you, saying, you'll never find you're way out, you'll be trapped here forever. I continued rushing up and down the hallways, but finding nothing.


	10. Chained

Chapter 10- Chained

Cortana's P.O.V.

I blinked my eyes open slowly, afraid of what I might see. But I could hardly see anything, it was so dark. And I hurt, like my muscles hadn't moved in awhile, then I realized both my hands were spread out in a Y shape, hanging from cuffs, my feet where in a similar position. I groaned, my head hurt too, it hurt to move everything...I also couldn't remember how I got here exactly.

"So...She awakes." I rough, sinster voice said from somewhere in the darkness, I moved my head around, trying to locate where it was coming from.

He, I'm assuming it is a he, chuckled.

"Boss, now what? She is awake, but what good is she here?" A booming, but slightly dense sounding voice called from somewhere else.

"We wait, I'll show that acursed son of Hades who's better!" The first voice snapped, almost revengfully. I didn't say anything, hoping they'd let me be. But no, that never works.

A figure approached I realized it was probably the 'boss'. He was tall and muscular, but he had a devious even evil look in his reached to touch my face. I pulled away, 'causing him to slap me, hard. I could taste blood in my mouth.

"If you know what's good for you girl, you will not disobey." He hissed, he tried to touch me again.

"Don't touch me." I whispered, the words seemed to get caught in my throat.

That only made he madder than ever, he held my neck in a choke hold, I began finding it hard to breathe.

Then I thought of the first good idea this trip, I was still in the palace, it was ice. My element.

I said a few words in ancient greek, something I was able to make out of my book. Suddenly pilllars, just as big as the ones that trapped the tiger surrounded me, he was forced out, cursing. Soon it was like I was in a tent, my pillars protecting me from the outside, but I knew it was only a matter of time before he broke through.

Percy's P.O.V.

So here we are in this tunnel made of ice and snow, when we hear a scream, it was really loud, mainly because the tunnel made it echo. But nontheless we sprinted to find an exit. Soon I slipped on some ice, making Annabeth fall onto me. We were like a slide, only I was seriouly going to have black and blue marks on my body later. Suddenly we reached the end, sliding into a plain of ice. But it was like a funhouse I guess, 'cause everywhere I looked I only saw Annabeth and I.

We slowly stood up, trying our best not to fall. I turned, only to see a black figure running at top speed towards us. As it got closer I realized who it was.

"Nico?" I said, but he didn't seem to hear or even see us, because moments later, he plowed into me like a football player, sending me back a feet feet.

Annabeth helped me up, Nico was scrambling around like crazy. I grabbed him by his shoulders and steadied him.

"Nico, whats wrong? Where's Cortana?" I asked. He took a deep breath, and in pretty much on sentence he told me how Cortana was trapped somehwere in this freaky place. Annabeth blinked, forgetting why she loved this place's architure. It seemed nobody knew what to do. Annabeth let out a long breath, when suddenly a sinister voice cackled.

"Run, run, run stupid demigods. You'll never find her...never." It mocked, we all turned in circles, trying to spot anything out of the ordaniary. But we only met ourselves.

"Who are you?" Annabeth yelled, only to have in echo.

"And what have you done with her." Nico growled. He charged a mirrior like wall, in rage. And slashed it with his obsidian sword. It shattered into a jillion shards, like snowflakes.

The voice laughed once more, before it stopped.

Annabeth scooped up some ice shards, they didn't melt. "Hang on guys, I think Nico found the answer." She siad.

"Yes! I knew it was always a good idea to express your emotions through physical contact!" I teased. She threw her scoop of icy shards at me.

"No Seaweed Brain, I meant, maybe if we continue smashing these walls, we'll eventually stumble upon Cortana." She hissed.

"Oh, yeah...What if we smash down this building though." I asked. She scoffed. "I know enough architure to know which walls hold the most wieght of this palace."

"Kay." I replied. "Alright, where do we start smashing?" Nico said, turning to her. She exaimined the ceilings and walls for a bit. She pointed to one wall.

Nico and I charged as one, and slashed the wall into shards. We continued this process slashing one and another under Annabeth's command. It seemed like we'd been doing this for hours, but only finding more and more mirror like walls. Now Nico and I were drenched in sweat disbite the coldness of the palace, and we were breathing heavily.

Annabeth kept looking at the walls, each time coming up with a more confused face.

"Which one next?" Nico said, even though it looked as if he'd slash another one and he'd pass out. "Guys...I don't know what to say...Every wall we slash...It gets, harder. I can't tell one from another, no less the structural ones." She groaned.

Nico threw his sword into the icy floor below, taking a pouty look as he sat on the ground. I knew how he felt, one time I'd almost lost Annabeth in the Sea of Monsters...I was super stressed then, I couldn't get my mind off of her, and Tyson. But mainly her.

Hey I may be dense but its obvious to see that the two like each other, you should see the way Nico looks at her when she ain't lookin'. It reminds me of myself, err. How I'd picture myself anyhow.

"Guys, look." Annabeth said, out in the horizion, the sun was setting.

"We had better find somewhere to sleep." I mumbled. "But...we can't just...leave her. She could be in danger, she could die." Nico protested.

"I know, but do you know how mad she'd be if we started looking for her at night, completely vurnable." Annabeth pointed out. He sighed and nodded, reluntantly following us. We soon came back into our tunnel we had slide down to get her, we all piled in there, Nico by the enterance, Annabeth on my left, she was asleep in no time. I nudged Nico slightly who, moved his eyes to look at me.

"Hey, she'll be alright, she is the daughter of Shivra." I reassurred. He nodded, but still looked concerned, but he took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, sleeping like the dead.


	11. Hope

Chapter 11- Hope

Cortana's P.O.V.

I woke, drained, food deprived, scared, and alone. But I knew that last one would last...soon they would realize I was awake, I struggled against these chains, my hands tightly bound, sore and swolen. My icy sheild as I had predicted did not last, and I did not have the energy to make another one. I looked down at myself, since the sheild was gone, they had gone nothing but torture me, whipping, slicing and beating me. I was literally black and blue all over, my once long jeans now were only shorts with shreds as my sliced and whipped legs had been uncovered, my tank top, now looked more like a bra, short and barely covering anything, as my black and blue stomach showed, my arms were not much worse, my face, I had suffered many bloody noses and swolen lips, and black eyes, along with the gashes he had cut, he had also cut my once shoulder bladed hair, it now barely scrapped my chin, only it wasn't the snowy white color it used to be, it was replaced with red, or even black, from the dried blood. I have cried much, realizing the hopeless situation I was in, but I couldn't cry anymore, I'd run out of tears to shed, no matter how depressed I was, nothing came, I'd almost thought If I'd cry anymore, I'd pass out from deydration, which was bound to happen soon, considering I hadn't had water since I was locked up.

But at nights when I was all alone, and I'd see the beautiful stars and even sometimes the northern lights through my window, I'd stare at them for hours, they give me hope. And then I'd think of Nico, and I'd wonder if he was thinking about me, or looking at the scenery I was. I'd think of Percy and Annabeth, how they were doing and if they were okay...or if they were even trying to find me.

Nico's P.O.V.

I woke suddenly, I had just had a dream of Cortana, they pain she was in, them torturing her...and in my rage I'd forgotten I'd realized something from that dream, but I could not come up with it. Every time I'd blink I'd see a pained face of Cortana, bloody, black and blue and weak. Something I'd only seen when I had first rescued her, only this time it was much worse.

And it angered me that I could do nothing to stop it, that I couldn't find her while she needed me.

_There's no one in town I know..._

_You gave us someplace to go..._

_I never said-"Thank you" for that..._

_I thought I might get one more chance..._

_What would you think of me now?_

_So lucky, so strong, so proud?_

_I never said "Thank you" for that..._

_now I'll never have a chance..._

_May angels lead you in..._

_Hear you me my friends._

_On sleepless roads the sleepless go..._

_May angels lead you in._

_So what would you think of me now?_

_So lucky, so strong, so proud?_

_I never said "thank you" for that._

_Now I'll never have a chance!_

_May Angels lead you in-_

_Hear you me my friends._

_On sleepless roads the sleepless go._

_May angels lead you in..._

_May angels lead you in..._

_May angels lead you in..._

_May angels lead you in..._

_May angels lead you in.._

_And if you were with me tonight..._

_I'd sing to, just one more time..._

_A song for the heart to big._

_God wouldn't let it live!_

_May angels lead you in..._

_Hear you me my friends..._

_On sleepless roads the sleepless go.._

_May angels lead in you in..._

_May Angels lead you in!_

_Hear you me my friends..._

_On sleepless roads the sleepless go..._

_May angels lead you in._

_On sleepless roads the sleepless go,_

_May angels lead you in._

A song I always felt was beautiful, it had meaning. Missing the one you love, being seperated, and hoping that the angels may lead them to you. I'd never belived in God, being the son of hades, but now, I hoped our gods were listening, I was praying, telling them to keep her safe until I got there. And as I watched outside, in the distant, fading dark of night, I saw something, maybe it was just my imagination, but I swear, I saw a star, twinkle at me. And then I felt something I had never knew existed, an emotion I was familar with.

Hope.

_A/n- alright I'm sorry, I know this chapter was off, but I felt I had to put that song in there, which by the way is sung by Jimmy eat world and is a turely beautiful song, but I hoped you enjoyed this chapter just the same, please give me your thoughts..._

_~CrystleIceFire_


	12. Escape

Chapter 12- Escape

Cortana's P.O.V.

I slowly blink my eyes to force open, it is completely dark with no clock, but I know that by the aurora lights in the sky, it is midnight, maybe eleven.

Perfect. Now I can begin my plan, I pretend I fall back asleep, knowing there are security camera's everywhere. But I secretly focus on every security machine they're can be in this place. Soon I hear the soft sound of ice freezing over something, turning it into ice completely, and I know it worked. But I don't stop concentrating I let the ice make its way to every device possible, camera's, inferred sensor's even loud speakers.

Soon I stop, pausing to listen for intruders, but hear nothing. I don't have any weapons, they confiscated them all when I was captured here. But I guess if I was careful enough, I could make it somewhere besides here without being caught, maybe I could even find some ice skates around here, after all, everyone I meet seems to have awful contraction on this ice, unlike me.

I quietly creep through the thin space that the door could open with out making any noise. They must've not realized how resistant I am to the cold, because they immediately made me dress in more winter attire, grumbling on how I could possibly last this long in the cold in only a tank top, jeans and sneakers. So instead I'm now wearing white knee high snow boots that have wedged heels, isolated with fur. I tucked my jean bottoms inside the boot also, and then they made me put on a white winter coat that also breaks the icy winds of winter, completely isolated with fur, even the hood. I'm just glad it doesn't appear to be polar bear fur. But now I'm barley roasting in my new clothes, so I unzip my coat slowly. I'm still hot, but I cool off slowly. At every corner I carefully peek over to see if anyone is there, I keep seeing strange creatures though. I think Nico told me those were monsters, I know I mustn't wake them, I have no weapons and would surely be either locked up again or even worse...dead.

But every corner seems like the same one, only each one has monsters, supposedly guarding it. So instead of trying to find a way out, I change my route to perhaps find a room that contains anything of my use, weapons, food, skates. But I soon stumble upon a narrow walkway, over the side is darkness, a trench, but they're is a highly locked up door on the other side, if only I could get to it, it has to have something of importance inside.

I gulp, but don't convince myself not to go, but I let out a yelp as the ledge ahead of me broke off, falling into the darkest or dark trenches. I quickly cover my mouth and look around to see if anyone noticed. As my heart rate slows and the little color I have returns to my face, I realize no one did wake. I take a breath and carefully take a large step over the icy ledge, I don't wait to see if another part will break away, I'm now sprinting across the ledge, but I nearly run into the secured wall before I realize I had made it across safely. I carefully summon this fog that envelopes the high tech door, freezing it entirely. I then kick the door, making it shatters into tiny snowflakes. I see inside, it must be some type of refrigerator or even a freezer, it contains food everywhere. I restrain myself from gorging myself, but I notice they're is a backpack amongst the pile as well. On the very tip top. Great...

Anyway, I decide it would be best to eat before I scale the large pile, so I do, slowly at first, they've been limiting my food portions, almost as much as I got when I was in the orhange as a kid, but the lack of food has taken a toll on my body, I'm really skinny, and feel paper thin, and wihtout energy, and I bet you anything I could count every single one of my ribs easily.

I finish my food, I'd eaten almost as much as I would've before I got locked up in this bloody place. And now I was waiting to see if I would throw up, then I'd have to eat, again. But the food has done wonders for my health, I feel much, much better and fine as far as energy goes. I wonder if this is some sort of Greek god food or something, maybe even magical or enchanted food. I will have to remember to pack more later on.

I decide it is okay to start climbing now, I don't show any signs of getting sick or anything so, I begin scaling the pile. Its actually harder than it looks, the food it squishy, very hard to make a good step on, and every once and awhile, I take a step and my entire leg is swallowed by the food, so then I have to dig it out forcefully, sometimes my whole body up to my waist gets trapped in the pile, that takes a _long_ time for me to get unstuck.

When I finally make it too the top, I sit their for a while to regain my strength, even risk eating some more. And just when I pull the backpack onto my back, the whole pile begins shaking and rumbling like crazy. Me being at the very top and the food falling down like an avalanche, plus my clumsiness, I fall, well I fall a few feet and land in the food.

I grunt, even though its just food, its hurts. And now I'm covered in everything from mustard to peanut butter. Gross. I'll never understand this American sauces. But since the food is already tumbling down the pile, I do too, rolling and somersaulting down the hill.

That is until I reach the bottom, my momentum from the fall causes me to slide a few feet away from the rest of the pile and for some reason, I can feel the ice causing scratches and bruises on my stomach. I grunt. Slowly getting up, but I am stopped when I giant dinosaur like creature's foot makes a huge dent in the ice not a foot from where I was laying.

I don't move, fearing it would only make things worse. But I slowly look up, and I have to cover my mouth not to gasp.

Its a gigantic rhino. Like as big as the ceiling. Its foaming gross silvia at its mouth, which since I'm a demigod and apparently nothing good ever happens to demi-gods, its probably acid or some other deadly concoction. And on its head, it two of the largest horns I've ever seen atop its head. The smallest one is as tall as me easy. The rhino is breathing angrily, causing puffs of cold air to come from its nostrils, which I could probably fit in if I had too.

Bloody hell, is all I'm thinking. I doubt my throwing knife could do any damage at all, even if I had one, considering its rough skin is probably as hard to get through as the Nemion lion's was when Percy fought it, which he told me he did at camp, all weapons just recoiled off its pelt.

But it had to have some sort of weak point, not that I was in any condition to find it or anything.

Come on think, what do I know about Rhino's...

Then probably the most helpful fact I know about them came to my mind, Annabeth had told me this not far back, they have really acute sense of hearing, but their practically blind.

With this information at my use, I bolt to through the door, coating it with ice as I went, but like I said, it roared in anger, finding its intruder. I didn't look back, but judging from the gigantic chunks of ice that flew past me, I'd say it just broke the entire wall down. I'm not very fast, not without skates, but I create a path across the chasm I'd crossed before to make it across. And I do.

That chasm is bigger than the Rhino, huge. It stamps its foot into the snow. Huffing in debate. Its thinking whether or not to cross. Hopefully, it'll get stuck, but I'm reminded that demigods have no such luck and it leaps across the chasm with a bound. I struggle not to pass out from fear, it was at least a foot away from me, again.

I couldn't see its face, it was hidden by its huge horn, but I know its trying to find me, but it can't, I'm too close, and he's blind.

Then I remember their accurate hearing trait. And stand as still as possible.

I continue not moving until I think I'm frozen that way, until I am saved by a shout. "There she is get her!" A voice shouts, but I hear a smack and I know that was not the right thing to do.

I'm proved this wasn't the right thing as the Rhino turns away from me, and charges at the group of people who came to capture me, I'm relieved I'm no longer in danger. But I'm quickly reminded that I am, because as I slip on the skates that were inside the pack, I realize the entire walls as being plowed into by the rhino, causing debris to fall everywhere.

I curse and in my British accent, it doesn't sound so menacing. But as soon as I get my skates on, I fly out what is left of the wall.

Then I see just how massive and dangerous the rhino really was, because the entire palace is being destroyed. My palace, well my mother's palace, but that really doesn't make me feel much better.

Debris is falling everywhere, so I have to watch my back every so often, one of these fall on me, and I'm dead.

I have to hurdle over some of the already fallen debris, which is quite difficult because its been built up. And people's screams ring all over the place, which probably not helping the rhino's rampage stop. My deprived feeding makes me have to stop every so often to regain energy, but then I'm off again in a heartbeat. I'm so scared my body is quaking, which is not helping considering the floor is just as bad as the rhino's stomps shake the palace.

Its hard to skate in difficult situations like this, I whobbled and am repeatedly slowed as it rages on. I can feel the shaking growing, and I know the Rhino is chasing me again. But I am close to where the exit is, I remember from when they drug me here.

I can feel its breath on me as I make it through the small hole which is the exit. The shaking stops for a moment, but I don't any sort of gain on that thing I can get will help. But I can feel my muscles aching as I continue to skate.

I fly down corridors and hallways of the once beautiful mirror like walls, but now they just freak me out.

And then I crash into the person I'd most wanted to see this entire time.

Nico Di Angelo.

A/N: I wanted to fix and change this chapter to make it more dramatic, sorry if you don't like it. I know its a paint to have to re read stuff.


	13. Rhino's Rampage

Chapter 13- Rhino's Rampage

A/N: I dramatically changed the last chapter, so ya'll might wanna look it over again.

Nico's P.O.V.

We were walking along when we decided it would be safe enough to search for Cortana again so we began searching and not long after we started I heard the familiar sound of ice skates, and by the sound, they we not wasting any time to stop. I guess Percy and Annabeth heard it too, because when we all turned around. And with a loud shriek someone or something crashed into me, well the impact sent me and the person and or thing flying, I landed on the ice first, skidding on it surface, which hurt like all Hades. And the other person used me as a crash pad, which hurt just as much, but luckily their ice skates did not impale me. But that person and or thing went flying over top of me, skidding across its surface just as I had, but they didn't seem to be hurt at all by it.

The person took a large breath and pushed off the ice and scrambled over to me. She and or it grabbed my arm and tried dragging me away to somewhere, which hurt.

Percy and Annabeth we running towards us. The girl, which I was sure it was a girl, she was small and thin. But I couldn't see over her cloak thing she was wearing that covered her entire face.

But she managed to get me to my feet, and then I saw the problem, and it was huge.

A giant rhino, probably a greek one with supernatural powers too, was charging at us. I only took a second to get to my feet and run for my life. The girl was fast with skates, swift. But she looked ready to pass out from exhaustion. Percy and Annabeth had somewhat of a head start, because they were only a few feet ahead of us, I was in back, but that girl kept pushing me along, for she could've been gone in a second.

"Wait! Rhinouserous's are blind, they rely on hearing, if we are very quite it might go away." Annabeth shouted, unfortunately that outburst directed the Rhino towards her, Percy and Annabeth hit the hard ice, Percy shielded her with his body, his sword raised and ready, but just as the Rhino was about to hit them, it stopped. It sniffed the air, trying to sense us. It took me a moment to realize the the girl and I had also stopped in our tracks, not daring to move. Only the white puffs of the cold air that came from our mouth and the rhino's flaring nostrils moved.

Silence...

Then the next thing I hear is the sound of a gun, shooting a bullet. And the girl hit the floor. Which probably knocked her out considering her head hit the hard ice with a devastating crack, and the rest of her fell limp to the floor. As I approached, her hands balled into fists. But I had to save her, she saved us, in a way.

I scooped her up, I couldn't see blood, but I knew she was hurt. The rhino was back on us again, and Percy and Annabeth had made an escape through a narrow tunnel, I clutched the girl close to my body and thought about going anywhere besides here.

Then we were gone, just as the rhino's horn was about to impale me, we disappeared in a shadow of darkness.

Cortana's P.O.V.

I was dead. I was sure of it. Because I woke and I felt lighter than air, and everything was so...bright.

But I wanted out of here, Nico was carrying me, and I was dead.

I blinked my eyes open. And I found myself in Shivra's palace again. Only it wasn't destroyed by the Rhino's rampaging, it was re-built and even more beautiful than the first time.

"Good, you're awake dear." A soothing voice called from somewhere. The voice was pleasant and beautiful, like icicles clinging gently together.

"Huh?" I called, my voice was hoarse and strange. "I've been watching you dear. I knew you'd be a great demigod." The voice soothed, and a cool hand was placed on my back, I immediately relaxed.

"Am I dead?" I asked, I couldn't see her body, but she was as pale as fresh snow, and her skin was as smooth as ice.

"No sweetie, you are very much alive. I must say though, that was one heck of a fall just then." She reassured. I sighed in relief, so I wasn't dead after all. "Then...Where am I? And who are you?" I asked.

She giggled, another soothing sound. "Silly child, you are in my palace." She answered. "And you are close to finding me." She said.

"Mother?" I asked. "Which other god or goddess do you think could contact you in your dreams?" She replied. "Where are you being held?" I asked.

"I'm sorry love, I am very weak, I'm lucky I was able to contact you. You are close." She said, but her hand was being pulled away from my face, and her voice was getting farther and farther away.

"No! Don't go!" I shouted and tried reaching for her. "Remember my daughter, I have always loved you." She said as her voice faded completely.

"Hey...Wake up. Wake up." Another voice joined me, a more male voice.

Nico's P.O.V.

I shadow traveled a long ways, I wasn't sure where Percy and Annabeth were anymore. The girl was still alive, her heart beat was still going. The only part of her face I could see was her eyes, which were closed.

She rolled over so her head was facing my body. Her hands, which were pale, I figured from the blood loss, it was obvious she had been tortured, unhealed scars and bruises covered her body. Her hands reached towards me, and they each clutched a handful of my shirt, and her facial expression, as far as her eyes, turned tense. Her head buried more into my shirt.

I wanted to pull her hood down, but that would probably scare her somehow. But I did lay my hand over her body.

"Hey...Wake up, wake up." I tried waking her and it must've worked.

She grunted a little and blinked open her eyes, which were devisatitingly blue. Not blue like Percy's which where the color of the ocean, they were blue like the ice of winter.

She didn't move, she just laid her head in my lap. And looked around, she started moving her body, as if to see if she could move it safely.

And as she moved her hood fell back. Revealing the whitest platinum blond hair I've ever seen. I gasped, it was _her._Cortana. My Cortana. She moved her head to look at me, but kept her arms around me. She smiled weakly.

"Hi Nico." She said, and even though her voice was hoarse and weak, she sounded like an angel to me. Without warning I sat her in my lap and wrapped my arms around her, It felt so good to have her here, safe again with me. Even though most of her was wet from melted snow. She moved her arms to wrap around my neck. I moved one of my hands to her hair, feeling its silkily smooth texture and the other was tightly around her waist. She laid her head on my shoulder and we laid there like that for a long, long time.

So happy to be together again.


	14. Now Where?

Chapter 13- Now Where?

Percy's P.O.V.

Soon we'd found a nice place to camp for the night after the crazy rhino's attack earlier. Annabeth found it actually, cleverly hidden behind a ice statue of a polar bear. Once inside and somewhat comfortable despite the lack of room, she pulled out her laptop she'd obtained in her adventures with me.

"So I'm guessing that that Rhino was a decoy or something?" I asked, she nodded, her misty gray eyes scanning over the lit up screen in front of her.

" Supposedly, I mean this pretty canceled out the possibility of Shivra's palace being here after all..." Her voice tailing off.

"Yeah, but, where could she be?" I asked, taking out the clumps of snow from my hair. She shook her head, "I don't know, its not making any sense, I really thought this was were she would be but..." Her voice trailed off. At her obvious discomfort I sat by her and put my arm around her comfortingly.

"Don't worry, we'll figure this out." I said trying my best to sound happy, I knew how hard it was for her to not know something, it irked her to the extreme. She sighed, she took out a complex looking microchip and stuck it into the computer.

Almost immediately a new window appeared on the screen, it showed what looked like map, with a blue dot on the center.

"It works." She exclaimed, she quickly typed in something else, and a black dot appeared on the screen.

"Should I know what your doing?" I asked. "Its a tracker program I found when we were looking for Cortana." She replied as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"And that is good, How?" I asked. "It'll allow us to find Nico, who hopefully has Cortana with him too. Seaweed Brain..." She explained, mumbling the last part.

I pretended to ignore her as I continued. "Awesome, maybe they'll know something about Shivra's whereabouts..." I said. Annabeth shook her head in agreement, she closed the laptops top, slipping it back into her backpack, she curled up next to me and soon I could feel her even breathing as she fell asleep.

I was the next to doze off, we'll find them, tomorrow hopefully.

Cortana's P.O.V.

I sighed in my sleep, blinking my eyes open, letting them adjust to the light as the sun's light shone off of the ice we were inside.

After a bit, I uncurled my aching hands from their grip on Nico's shirt. I started to rise to my feet, carefully not to loose my balance in my ice skates, I stretched out my tired legs, but my hands were killing me, so I began massaging them, it hurt, but I could feel the tight muscles regaining their usual place. But I knew my knife throwing accuracy was going to plummet.

I heard a groan and Nico sat up, rubbing his eyes from the night before. He slowly got up testing his bound to be stiff limbs. Once up he wandered over to me, looking out at the Acrtic in the morning sun.

"So, I'd say Shivra's not here." He said. I nodded, "Yeah, but...where now?" I pondered, looking around for something else.

"Hard to say, I don't know where a goddess of Winter would be held." He said, turning in circles as he looked around.

"I hope we find her soon, I want to go home..." I said quietly. "Me too." He agreed.

Annabeth's P.O.V.

I woke the next morning to the beeping of my laptop, I quickly rose and got it out of my backpack, opening it in the process, it showed us, which was the blue dot, and the black dot, which was moving.

"Percy wake up!" I shook him, he grunted and rolled over. I rolled my eyes and shook him harder. His eyes shot open and he put his hands up.

"Alright, alright, I'm awake, now wheres the fire?" He asked still a little groggy from sleep. "Hurry, its Nico, and hopefully Cortana, they're moving, we have to follow them." I said, I was packing up things rapidly.

Percy began helping and once everything was good to go, we set off, me in front, the laptop steady in my grip.

After about thirty minutes of twists and turns, we made it to a narrow path, the only bad part was the sharp icicles sticking out from either side, they glinted in the sunlight, looking sharper than ever.

"Well, the tracker thingy says its this way, so lets go." Percy said running across the path, forcing me to follow. As we descended the icicles got longer and bigger making travel nearly impossible. Soon I saw Percy, he stood in front of a dead end, the icicles fused together like a gate.

"Percy...I don't know if coming in here was a good idea..." I said, trying my best to avoid being pincered by the ice. I looked at the monitor, it said they were right by us.

"Percy, I don't understand, it says that we are standing where they're standing..." I replied urging him by gently shaking his shoulder.

"Well, if they couldn't get out this way..." He said, looking around. "They went up." He stated. I gave him a confused look, but he was proved correct when I saw the marks of ice skates on the icicles, I even saw a few stray fabrics, most likely ripped from them when they got to close to the point.

"Great..." I said, slipping my laptop back into my pack, I took out my knife, I started with the closest one to the ground, I stabbed it, making it useful for something to hold onto. Then I carefully hoisted myself up, it was so cold, and getting colder by the moment.

But I sucked it up and stabbed the nearest pillar of ice, hoisting myself up onto it as well. I looked down, Percy was following my lead, but we were getting high in the air already, and I was not even close to the top.

I took in a jagged breath and continued ascending up the trench. It was sunset by the time we arrived at the top, I was glad for the warmth, but I knew it would be dark soon.

Once atop, I took out the laptop once more, we were close, they must've stopped at some point...

Percy's sword dug deep into the glacier's top as he hefted himself up onto the top. We were both sweating from the exercise, despite the cold air.

"Now...where to?" He said, taking deep breaths. I turned in the direction that they were.

"No way..." I gasped. It was now dark, and the beautiful beams of auroras were in the sky, but that wasn't the part that startled me. It was the fact that the aurora's touched the icy ground, forming into a staircase of elegant colors, and two figures were climbing them.

"I..." I struggled for words. Now Percy was looking too.

"I think we found were Shivra's palace is, for real this time." Percy spoke for me. "Now it makes sense, Aurora's are common in the winter, and they appear daily in the Arctic." I stated, beginning to walk towards the beam of light.

"Hurry Percy, If my estimation is correct, we have until sunrise to rescue Shivra." I said, running to the beam of bright colors.

_'Only until sunrise...'_


	15. Shivra

Chapter 14- Shivra

Nico's P.O.V.

This felt unreal...In all my life of being a demigod, which included traveling to Olympus, taking down massive and not very nice looking so called mythological creatures, and living in 'Hell' with my father, you'd think I would stop feeling surprised.

But I'm not.

The Northern Lights are supposedly way up in the sky, unreachable and as far as I had known, untouchable. But yet here I am climbing a huge stairway, which was made out of the beautiful and radiant Aurora lights.

It was cold, and I didn't have a jacket. My breath could be seen as white puffs of air as I breathed, and I felt numb all over. But we were close, close to the end, and I knew it.

"Nico?" A soft voice called, Cortana was by my side, the cold was obviously not effecting her, because she looked like she always had since she came here, pale with some freckles on her face, lightest color of blue eyes possible, and snow white hair, straight.

I turned to look at her, but she looked worried. "Are you alright? You look cold..." She said, biting her lip.

"I'm fine." I lied. Her eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms and looked at me skeptically.

"Nico, you're lips are blue." She pointed out. But I smiled halfheartedly and said, "Really...I'm fine."

"Swear on the River Styx." She cornered me...Great. I couldn't swear on that, I was lying. I sighed as we kept ascending the stairs.

"I can't...I'm not fine." I admitted. She bit her lip again and looked down. "Well, if you're cold, I can't do anything to help you there. I'd just make you colder..." She said quietly.

"I know." I said, god could I get any worse, I was just telling my girlfriend, or girl who is a friend, that she can't help me get better and I'll most likely die.

She turned forward again and began climbing. But I grabbed her arm and stopped her. "Cortana...I didn't mean it like that." I said. But she wouldn't make eye contact with me, which wasn't a good sign.

She paused for a moment, "I...I know. I just...wish I could help somehow."

"Its not your fault." I reassured. She stopped suddenly. "Nico!" She exclaimed, tugging on the flap of my shirt.

"What is it?" I asked, hurrying towards her. "Look!"

"Oh my gods." I was breathless to say much more, if you thought the last palace was beautiful, this one was even more so.

It turned colors, making it look seemingly unreal. But it was definitely there, it held a firm shape. It was a castle, just like any other castle.

"Come on! She has to be in here!" Cortana broke the silence, running up the stairs. I blinked a few times, taking my eyes off the captivating palace and sprinting after Cortana.

Percy's P.O.V.

"Percy!" Annabeth exclaimed, sprinting up the mass of stairs made from the Northern Lights. I hurried after her.

"We only have until sunrise to make it to the top! And judging by the light of the dark, I'm pretty sure we have like, an hour until the stairs fade." She continued.

Despite the stiffness of my limbs I pushed myself faster up the stairs, Annabeth and I had been climbing these eternal stairs for three hours, it was that big of a staircase, and we could barely see the top of the castle. Furthermore, we just lost sight of Cortana and Nico, who disappeared from our sight not three minutes before.

Luckily, Annabeth and I packed for winter weather, Annabeth was now wearing a fur isolated gray jacket with a hood that was pulled over her head, and her jeans were tucked inside warm brown snow boots, and white gloves covered her hands.

I on the other hand was wearing a black winter coat with the hood pulled up over my head, and I was wearing fur isolated hiking boots, which had good traction, thank the gods. And I had blue gloves covering my hands.

Soon, I felt my body slam into the smaller one of Annabeths who fell on the ground, me following her, I shifted just in time not to land on her.

But Annabeth seemed to ignore what just happened and scrambled quickly to her feet, gesturing for me to get up she pointed. "Look! Its them Percy, hurry! We have to catch them!" She said, taking off over the land of many colors, Nico and Cortana were at the entrance to the castle, looking puzzled.

I hauled my body off the floor, rushing towards them. "Nico! Cortana!" Annabeth yelled, I waved my hands frantically, hoping they'd see us.

They whipped around in confusion for a minute, before Nico turned towards us. "Hey! Percy, Annabeth!" He called, Cortana now aware of our presence whipped around.

Once we arrived in front of them we spoke, "So, what the hold up?" I asked. I knew Annabeth was worried about the time, she kept glancing at the sky.

"Well, we can't figure out how to get inside." Cortana said, Nico pointed at the door. "Yeah, but I think it has something to do with these." He said, pointing to the Greek letters inscribed on the large door.

"Death and Winter often occur at the same time, which one usually comes first?" Annabeth translated. "Yeah, thats the problem, we don't know." I said.

"Well, winter. Because its a season, the season that most people die of frostbite and such." Annabeth pointed out and grabbed her knife to carve the answer into the stone.

Just as the tip was about to touch Cortana spoke. "Are you sure?"

"Yes...I-I...I'm positive." She stuttered. "But what if its not right? I mean it could be death too." She countered, this time Annabeth looked very unsure, she wetted her lips and swallowed uncomfortably.

"Then...I don't know. But...how could it be death?" She asked, lowering the hand she held her knife in. "Cortana's right...I mean, death happens all the time, in any season, at anytime." I pointed out.

Annabeth and Percy exchanged glances. "I know its right, when I'm in the lair of my father, the buzzing in my ears almost never stops."

Annabeth looked uncertain, so without warning I pulled the knife from her hand and in ancient greek wrote, "Death."

In a loud rumbling motion the whole palace began to shake. "That wasn't the right answer! I was right!" Annabeth shrieked in fear, clutching into Percy for balance.

"No, it was right, look!" Cortana said, and sure enough, the large door was opening slowly, so heavy the place was shaking.

Then the rumbling stopped, and regaining our balance, we headed inside.

The inside was pretty plain looking, considering everything was the same color as the beams of aurora. Cortana rushed ahead, and Annabeth was busy clicking away on her laptop, before shutting it again.

Then a scream pierced the air, and everyone bolted forward, Cortana was gone again. But as we rounded the corner there she was, sprawled on the floor, barely being able to support herself, her eyes widen in shock.

I rushed to her side, but she pointed and gaped. Then I saw what she was so surprised about.

There in the center of the palace was a twenty foot statue, only it wasn't a statue, it was a person in cased in ice. But even in trapped in ice, the power radiated off the Goddess of Winter like a fireplace.

She was beautiful, tall and thin, but strong looking as well. Not as pretty as Aphrodite, and not as smart and dangerous looking as Artemis or Athena. But she was...definitely a goddess, her features were too perfect, her skin too flawless, her gaze to deadly.

She was wearing a long white dress, even in ice, it shimmered and shone with snowflakes. She wore many silver bracelets, and a necklace with a polar bear on it. Her hair was long and straight, whiter than Cortana's, and waist length. Her skin was surprisingly tan, I presumed from the snow reflecting the sun's rays even harsher, no wonder people that lived in the arctic were so tan.

On her head was a neat crown of silver, ingraved with white diamonds, which glittered and gleamed like icicles or snowflakes.

Annabeth acted like this was no surprise to her, she circled the Goddess of Winter multiple times. The rest of us stood back, even Cortana, who had gotten to her feet.

"So, we found her. Now what are we going to do?" I asked. "Well, I don't know, it would take something really strong to be able to freeze a God or Goddess, not to mention the Goddess that control ice." Annabeth thought aloud.

"Could she freeze herself?" I asked. "Not likely, I'm sure she has the capability to do so, but she wouldn't, not so close to the winter solstice." She continued with the shake of her head.

"Guys, this place is going to disappear in ten minutes, we have to get her out of here. Now." Percy said, looking towards the horizon.

"Well, we can't exactly push her, she's huge! No offense." I added.

Cortana fiddled with her hair. "Wait! I know how we can get her down." She snapped, her head jolting up as she ran towards the walls.

"Hurry! Wrap her in this rope!" She said, flinging a thick rope at us, Annabeth, who was skinnier climbed up higher on the walls, carefully wrapping her in the rope.

Cortana put to fingers to her mouth, and before I could ask what she was doing, a loud whistle pierced the air.


	16. Back to Camp

Chapter 14- Back to Camp

Annabeth's P.O.V.

At first nothing happened, and I was beginning to question the purpose of why Cortana whistled. But then, it happened.

The earth was shaking violently under our feet. We reached the walls for support, but it was beginning to scare me, it felt like the whole aurora light that made this castle and place was going to shatter. I thought we were too late.

Even the frozen statue of the winter goddess was shaking and wobbling.

Then it did, it tipped over, falling as if in slow motion. We all ran out of its path, and the winter goddess' frozen form clattered on the ground.

Then, they came.

Polar bears.

At least one hundred all lined up. They seemed to reconize the Shivra, because many of them sniffed her. They seemed to realize the urgency, so we hurried. The bears took bits of rope into their mouths and pulled. At first, it seemed she was stuck, but then with a pull, they moved forward, faster than I thought was possible.

Now I realized, that the earth was shaking because the castle was falling apart. The shiny bits of gleaming aurora fading.

Cortana seemed to realize this too, and since the polar bears were moving faster than we could, she hopped on one's back.

I decided that would be our best chance at survival and copied her, as did the boys.

Once on, it was kinda weird, all the polar bears were grunting and roaring. But they moved with purpose.

But they couldn't possibly drag us all the way back to Camp Half-Blood, that was much too long for them, especially with a larger than life Winter Goddess.

My thoughts were interrupted when the Polar bears picked up speed, and I mean really picked up speed, we were going down the long staircase of light now. But as I looked back I realized we were crunched for time, because the staircase as we passed over it was fading.

But eventually with a great leap we crash landed on the artic ground, the polar bears slid a bit, as did the statue of the goddess. But everyone was safe.

I leapt off we were at the waters edge now, but we still couldn't possibly manage to swim all that way.

Then it hit me.

We were on a glacier, a floating glacier!

All we had to do was smash it big enough to hold all our weights including Shivra, and maybe a little help from Posidon.

"Guys! Break off the glacier!" I shouted over the bears grunts and yelps.

"Are you sure?" Nico asked, "Yes! Just do it!" I yelled.

Percy and Nico headed off, cutting around the glacier in a wide arch, big enough for Shivra and us, Cortana even thickened the glacier by a few layers to make sure we wouldn't melt or break.

All at once, we heard a deafing crack, and the glacier broke away, floating off. But the only bad part was that Percy and Nico were on the opposite side of the peice. Before we could think Cortana stabbed her knife into the glacier, and ice spread out in one narrow, thin path to the other glacier.

It was holding us there, but it wouldn't for long.

"Come on! Hurry, It'll break!" I shouted to them, Nico took off first, carefully stepping across the ice. And even though Nico was quite light as of weight, the ice still was cracking.

"Percy hurry!" I called, he ran across the ice, it broke as his feet stepped on it, but at the last moment he dove onto our glacier not a second before the ice broke.

I helped him up muttering that he had a seaweed brain. God it was so hot out here, we were like baking in the sun.

"Can't Shivra just melt? It is pretty hot." Cortana said trying to keep cool.

"Not exactly, it would take another god to melt this ice, someone used he or her's powers to freeze this goddess." I explained.

She shrugged and laid back down.

"How long to think it will take us to drift back to Camp Half-Blood?" Nico asked, staring out into the vast amount of sea water, Antartica had long ago left our line of sight so now it was just us and water.

"At this rate, the Solstice will be over." I remarked.

I heard Cortana groan, "Can't Percy's dad do something to make it go faster?"

Percy thought for a moment, "I can try."

And with that he closed his eyes and his lips moved as if in prayer, and all at once, four killer whales appeared out of nowhere, they did that high pitched cry and then two of them went on either side of us, and the other two pushed.

And with a great lurched, we were moving fairly fast. Now we would get their in plenty of time for the Solstice.

I hope she melts in time.


	17. Camp HalfBlood

Chapter 17- Home

Nico's P.O.V.

I groan as voice's force me to rise from my slumber.

"Someone get Chiron!" A female voice shouted.

"There back!" Another exclaimed.

"Quick someone get the Apollo campers!" Another ordered. Before I knew it someone roughly grabbed me and was dragging me across the ground, talking to me softly.

"Its going to be okay Nico. You're going to be fine." The voice reassured.

My eyes blinked open, only to shut themselves again due to the intense light shining in them.

I groaned, they pinned my wrists to the ground.

Feeling the sense of panic I struggle against the person holding me down, but they are much too strong.

"Easy you'll tire yourself out." A deep, masculine voice calls.

"Antonio?" I choke out, my voice hoarse and weak.

"Who else?" He teases.

I look to see his monster hands pinning me down while an Apollo camper is treating my wounds.

"Someone get some water!" Antonio's voice bellows. In minutes a canteen of water is thrust into my grasp, taking the sweet liquid I drink it hungrily.

"Thank the gods; I thought I'd never taste purified water again." I said. After a few minutes and healing remedies the Apollo camper says I'm good to go, but to get more rest and drink more water.

I sit up, watching the other campers scramble to treat Annabeth, Percy and Cortana.

Antonio helps me stand up, and my limbs are already straining.

"Dude, what happened?" He asks.

"Long story." I answer. "What about Shivra and the others?" I ask.

"Mr.D and Chiron are dealing with Shivra and Annabeth, Percy and Courtney are all being cared for." He replies.

"Cortana, not Courtney." I warn him.

"Opps." He says walking with me. Many campers point and start to talk animatedly.

As we continue I realize I look like crap, my shirt has several rips and tears from the ice pillar climbing and tiger claws. My pants aren't much better; thankfully my shoes are pretty good. My sword still rests in its sheath, covered in blood and will probably need buffed and resharpened.

My body is pink from the arctic cold still affecting me, and I can already feel a cold coming on. And it'll probably take a metal comb to tame my hair back down.

As I walk by I see Percy drinking water, leaning against a tree for support as people evaluate him for injuries.

He doesn't look much better, though he doesn't have as much rips in his clothes as I do, seeing he only had to climb the ice pillars, but he looked absolutely wore out, like he could fall asleep and not wake for a week.

He is bleeding from some reopened wounds and he is most likely going to have multiple scars. His sword is most likely with him in pen form, like it always is.

As he sees me he gives me a nod and a weak smile. I nod back and continue on. Annabeth isn't much better, multiple scars and wounds, though Percy had more black and blue marks covering his skin, her hair was a rats nest, she was completely soaked, and by the way she was shaking uncontrollably I say she caught the flu.

She waves slightly as more Apollo campers make her swallow some sort of medication and wrap her in a blanket.

Cortana lays not much farther, gulping down what appears to be her third canteen full of water.  
She doesn't have any signs of sickness as far as shaking or coughing, but her clothes are soaked and heavy. She looks so tired and wore out, her throwing knife lies limply in her grasp, her shirt is really torn up, but the rest of her looks good, her hair is blood covered, as well is the rest of her, her skates are in her other hand, she is wearing her snow boots.

As she sees me she smiles and waves, the Apollo campers helping her up, she gives me a signal she will be back, and takes off towards her cabin, limping slightly.

I decide it would be best for me to get out of these clothes and into new ones, so I head towards me cabin, upon reaching it I strip off the soaked shirt, examining myself for wounds.

I treat it with some disinfectant and wrap the gashes with some binding and dry myself back up, throwing on another, dry shirt.

I repeat this process with my other clothes, also ditching my shoes and socks and replacing them.

Once all dry I wash my hair, I suspect I still smell like sick ocean water, but I manage to comb my hair back to its normal state.

Feeling much better and dry I head out once more. Cortana is talking to Chiron, who is in his centaur form.

She looks much better too, he wounds clean and bandaged, her hair and body looked clean; she must've taken a shower.

Her hair is dry and clean, its original white color. She is wearing fresh clothes too, a white hoodie sweatshirt and light blue jeans and her white sneakers. Her throwing knives aligned in her belt according to size.

She still looks tired, her eyes are droopy and she seems barely able to muster up the energy to move.

I move over to her side and see what they are conversing about.

"Will she be okay?" Cortana asks, despite the tiredness in her voice.

"Yes, Director D is working on her as we speak, she will be able to go to the Solstice." Chiron reassures her.

That's right the Solstice is today, at sunset to be exact.

Cortana smiles gratefully. "Now you should be resting, you've had a long journey." Chiron advises, but trots over to Percy for reports.

"You ready for another quest anytime soon?" I ask as I come up behind her, she jumps in alarm, but turns towards me and laughs.

"Not if it includes going back to the Oracle." She says.

"Yeah, I'm good with prophecies for a while anyway." I agree.

"You look better." She comments, noticing my dry clothes.

"I feel better." I reply.

She lets out a yawn. She blinks, forcing herself to remain awake.

"You're tired, you should rest." I order.

She opens her mouth to protest, but stops herself.

"Alright…." She agrees, changing her course to her cabin.

I walk her to her cabin, and before we know it we are at the steps to the ice palace she calls home.

I lean forward and kiss her, gently at first. But her arms wrap around my neck and my hands find there way around her waist. Her icy cold lips against my deadly cold ones.

I felt like my whole body was going to be frozen solid by the time we broke apart, but I was fine.

She looked up at me, her iced blue eyes meeting mine. She unlatched herself from me, and my arms fell away from her waist.

"Well….I better get to sleep now." She said, opening her door to her cabin, but I saw it, was her naturally rosy red cheeks redder?

I think they were.

And with that she entered her room, kissing me again lightly. I stepped out of the doorway as the door closed, the sound of weight shifting on the bed was heard, and then nothing.

She must've been tired.

I stretch my sore limbs, and decide a nap would be good for me too. So I enter my cabin for the second time since we've returned, this time just flopping down on the bed and letting sleep take over my tired and sore body.


	18. The Solstice

Chapter 18- The Solstice

Annabeth's P.O.V.

Everything was over, it was finally over. We could rest and sleep and not worry about monsters coming after us.

We were back at Camp Half-Blood. Safe and Sound.

After we all had a long nap, it was nearly sunset, and we all met to check on Shivra.

Mr. D had reluctantly offered to help Shivra, once we mentioned that when she did thaw she would most likely turn him into a penguin or polar bear.

I walked side by side with Percy. Nico and Cortana said they were their already, and everything was fine.

I still hurt from the quest, but I was better now, I still felt cold all the time, so I dressed in a warm hoodie and a long sleeved shirt with jeans and snowboots.

Percy seemed okay too, the water wasn't that cold to him, but we all suffered a cold. Well Cortana probably didn't.

We arrived at the Big House moments later and sure enough Nico waved us over, Cortana didn't notice us because Mr. D was currently unthawing her mother and she was watching intently.

Vines wrap around the large ice block she is incased it, and with a little force, the break, ice chunks flying every which way.

The Winter Goddess opens her icy blue eyes, she is weak. In a bright light she transforms from her truly godly form, into her semi-human form.

She is disoriented, sitting up and looking around blindly.

Mr. D hands her some ambrosia and nectar, informing her on the situation.

After a while, she nods in understanding, drinking the nectar and eating the ambrosia she stands, obviously feeling better.

She looks like the average mother, much like the gods and goddess do when they are in their semi-human form.

I see Cortana, she is staring at Shivra intently.

Shivra notices her; walking over to her I see Cortana's eyes widen, unsure of what to do. I mean she was an orphan for almost her entire life; she never had anyone to call a parent, with or without having a Goddess as one of them.

Shivra smiles at her, "My daughter, so grown up…" She continues.

"Thank you, and may the Gods watch over you." She finishes.

Cortana bits her lip, but Shivra wraps her arms around her warmly.

Cortana seems to freeze for a little, but eventually returns the embrace as they part.

"And Nico…" She adds, turning to face him. "Thank you for protecting my daughter." She thanks, they shake hands and she turns to us.

"Ahh if it isn't Percy Jackson." She notes. "I have heard much about you from Olympus. I am very pleased with your actions."

Percy nods politely in her direction before she turns to me.

"Annabeth." She smiles. "Such a smart girl, I admire that." She adds. I smile and thank her.

Shivra smiles, and whistles, a chariot appears, made of clear ice, but cleary hard enough that it would not break easily. Several snowflake designs wee craved expertly into the ice.

Attached to the chariot was a team of four polar bears, linked together by ice chains.

They roared and stomped their feet impatiently. They were all large, and clean, pure white despite their black claws, snouts and eyes.

They seemed to shimmer magically.

Shivra said her goodbyes, and with Dionysus right behind her, she transformed back into her major godly form, stepping onto the chariot and grabbing a hold of the reigns.

Nico puts an arm around Cortana's waist as they wave towards the Winter Goddess, Percy copies him and waves back.

With a crack of the reigns, the Polar bears are on the move, soaring in the sky like it's the arctic ground. Dionysus's chariot is pure wood, intertwining vines growing grapes are growing here and there. And pulling his chariot are two large black horses, who huff and neigh as they soar behind Shivra, up and up towards the Palace of Olympus.

We really didn't do much the days afterwards, just rest our tired bodies. But most of the kids here were having a field day without Dionysus here to strangle them with grape vines. But who could blame them.

Nico and Cortana became inseparable, always together doing whatever it was.

And many of the campers began to accept Cortana, despite their parents' quarrels. In fact her best friend is a girl from the Demeter cabin.

Fern from the Demeter cabin to be exact; she is quite a lovely girl, the leader of the cabin, about Cortana's age too.

She is quite pale with freckles dotting her face; she is about the same height as Cortana. She has earth brown hair and gorgeous green eyes; she has this...way with the plants I guess. It's like she can understand them or something.

Anyway they are best friends. Percy and I are together as always.

Cortana and Nico dominated in capture the flag, Nico went after the flag while Cortana guarded his sides' flag.

Turns out, she became skilled at freezing people to the ground, literally, all the campers stupid enough to take a step near the flag was frozen in place, it was quite hilarious though.

And with Nico's shadow traveling abilities he won the game for his team.

But they couldn't have done it without the Demeter cabin, which is like the only cabin they managed to side on their team, they grew wickedly thick and thorn bearing vines from the ground, enabling anyone to pass through with ease, it was quite the game that one.

But we haven't really done anything that interesting, just the same things we do everyday, battle each other with weapons. Hephaestus cabin is always creating new things; Aphrodite cabin is always begging other girls from other cabins to let them make them over.

Athena cabin is always sketching designs and plots for new things we could have at cabin.

Poseidon cabin is usually hanging out at the beach, Ares cabin is always picking fights with the other cabins, and Apollo cabins are always playing their ridiculous music. Hades cabin is always hanging with the Shivra cabin, who is always sculpting ice or making it snow.

Demeter cabin is always planting or harvesting crops, Dionysus cabin is always growing grapes and such.

But overall we're all half-bloods.

But nothing abnormal happens until someone gets a quest….


End file.
